


Mortal Pulse

by GeneticEnd



Category: My Chemical Romance
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Death, Frerard, M/M, Paranormal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-27
Updated: 2016-07-28
Packaged: 2018-07-18 15:20:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 20
Words: 40,456
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7320571
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GeneticEnd/pseuds/GeneticEnd
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Frank met Gerard for the first time, the guy seemed a little weird, but when he meets him again nine years later, weird is the least of his worries.</p><p>*This has been in my folders for a good while so I thought I may as well start posting it as motivation to get me to finish it</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

> '*' represents a passage of time

The first time they met, Frank had been eight years old and sitting on a park bench, waiting for his Dad to finish taking a work call so that he’d play catch with Frank like he’d promised. Frank tried not to be impatient about it; he knew his Dad worked hard so that their family could have nice things and go nice places, and really, Frank was lucky that his Dad had found time to take him out today, even if it meant he had to take phone calls every ten minutes. 

He’d been sat on his hands, kicking out his feet and watching the loose laces of his worn converse trail along the ground, the white becoming a dull, dusty grey instead. 

“Hi!” Frank had turned his head to find a young boy, about his age, jumping up onto the bench beside him, a lopsided grin plastered on his face. Frank had just kept silent, unsure of this person. “What’s your name?” he asked happily, starting to kick his feet out just like Frank was doing. 

“…Frank.” He mumbled, glancing over to see if his Dad was almost done on the phone. It didn’t look like it. 

“Hi Frankie! I’m Gerard, but you can call me Gee because I like you.” The boy now known as Gerard, grinned, leaning into Frank’s personal space a little more. Frank had been confused at how this kid could like Frank when he hadn’t even known Frank for 15 seconds. “Hey, Frankie, want to come on the swings with me? They’re both empty, I just watched Joshua get off one of them to go on the slide, so we can go on them together, at the same time.” Frank hadn’t the faintest clue who Joshua was, but it didn’t matter anyway. Before Frank could politely tell Gerard that no, he had to wait for his Dad so they could play catch, another voice boomed from across the park, catching Gerard’s attention. 

“Gerard! Come on! Now!” Frank couldn’t see who the voice belonged to, but it was low, deep and had a harsh tone to it. Gerard didn’t seem scared though, he just giggled, hopping off the bench before turning to Frank again, still looking as happy as ever.

“Well I have to go now, I’ll see you around, Frankie!” and then he sped off, his little legs running off to wherever the voice was calling him. Frank hadn’t thought that Gerard would see him around.

*  
Two years later, Frank’s Dad left. Frank found out about it when he’d gotten home from school and gone to dump his bag in his room, finding a brand new guitar laid out on his bed with a note attached to it. 

Frank had been begging his Mom and Dad for a guitar for months, his eyes lighting up at finding the one on his bed. Once he’d finally calmed down enough to actually read the note he wished he hadn’t been given a guitar. He’d rather his Dad than a guitar.

He’d run out of the house as soon as he realised, not really sure where he was going but not really caring either. He didn’t think twice when he made it to the park, sitting down on the same bench where he used to wait for his Dad to play catch with him. He was going to be waiting a lot longer now.

“Hey, Frankie!” Frank had frowned, watching as some kid around his age bounded up to him, climbing up onto the bench alongside him. Frank just turned in on himself, pulling his knees up to his chest and hiding his face as best as he could. He hadn’t even realised he was crying until he felt the knees of his jeans begin to get damp from his cheeks. “Frankie? You okay?”

“Go away.” Frank mumbled, tightening his arms around himself. It was silent for a few moments, and Frank thought that maybe the kid had left him alone like he’d asked, but then he heard the sound of feet scuffling and felt a small pair of arms wrap around his shoulders.

“M’sorry Frankie.” The boy whispered, pressing his back into Frank, and Frank didn’t feel like shaking him off at that moment. 

Frank didn’t realise till he’d finally made it home that the boy had been Gerard.

*  
Now it was seven years later and Frank hadn’t seen Gerard since, not that he was too disappointed by it. He hadn’t known the guy well enough to miss him. 

He was currently sat in the canteen, contentedly chewing on his peanut butter and jelly sandwich his Mom had made him, while listening to Bob try to explain to Pete why he does not like it when Pete comments on how great his ass his.

“Well why not? Everyone likes a good compliment.” Pete justified, just shrugging it off.

“Not about their _ass_.” Bob argued back, glaring at Pete.

“That is not true! Everyone likes to be told they have a nice ass.”

“But not by their _best friends_.” Bob turned his attention across the table to Frank, staring at him beseechingly. “Come on, Frank, back me up here.”

“You have nice ass, Bryar.” Frank stated, taking another bite out of his sandwich. 

“No!” Bob groaned, slumping over the table exasperatedly. Frank just rolled his eyes before laughing along with Pete as Ray and Patrick sat down to join them. 

“Have you seen the new kid yet? He’s weird.” Ray noted as he sat down on the other side of Bob. Frank could only raise a brow in speculation. Weird? Wasn’t the whole reason that they had become friends because they were the weird outcasts? “Insane weird.” Ray reconfirmed as if having read Frank’s mind. “He’s in my English class, didn’t stop talking about Salinger for half an hour straight.”

“Hey dude, _The Catcher in the Rye_ is brilliant.” Frank frowned disapprovingly.

“I _know_ , but that isn’t even the book or the author we’re learning about.” Frank just shrugged, thinking that they weren’t in any position to be calling someone weird. He managed to drown out the rest of the cafeteria noise and just concentrate on the laughter of his friends, the jokes they were telling, the harmless insults they were throwing. 

“Frankie!” a loud familiar voice across the room managed to snag Frank’s attention. He looked up to find a boy with candy red hair waving frantically at him, balancing a tray of food in his other hand. He ran over to Frank’s table, almost tripping over his own feet several times before safely making it, sliding into the seat next to Frank. His friends were sending him weird looks, but to be honest Frank was just as confused. “It’s so amazing that you go here, I would have never guessed!” he grinned excitedly before looking down at his tray of questionable cafeteria food. “I’m not sure my body is going to be able to digest whatever this is…I guess that’s why you bring a packed lunch? That’s smart, you’re smart, Frankie.” He looked up from his tray and over to the large clock on the wall, his eyes widening slightly before he grinned again. “Woops! I gotta go! Catch you around, Frankie.” The boy leant over, giving Frank a quick peck on the cheek, not letting him get a word in edge ways, before jumping up and running off towards the exit, leaving his tray full of untouched food. 

Frank was just stunned into silence. He couldn’t quite get his brain to begin working fast enough to process what exactly had just happened. 

“Wow…who’s the guy, _Frankie?_ ” Bob mocked, a smirk pulling at the corner of his mouth, but Frank was still stunned into staring after where the boy had run.

“I think…I think that was Gerard?” Frank phrased it as a question because, really, he wasn’t sure himself. It had been seven years since he’d seen the guy, so it could’ve really been anyone, but Gerard had been the only person he could remember to have ever called him ‘Frankie’. 

“Who’s Gerard?” Frank couldn’t answer Bob on that one either. Who _was_ Gerard? He didn’t really know. He’d only met him twice before this and he’d never actually found anything out about the guy. All he had to go on was that his name was Gerard and that he liked to talk. A lot. 

“He seems nice.” Patrick spoke up, sending a small smile Frank’s way. 

“It probably won’t come as a surprise that that was the guy I was referring to earlier.” Ray whispered, as if Gerard would turn out to be standing right behind them. “Do you believe me _now?_ ” 

“He seems nice.” Patrick repeated, if only to reassure himself. “…Friendly.”


	2. Chapter Two

Frank didn’t see Gerard again until the next day, at lunch, in the cafeteria. He came bounding over to the table, fire truck red hair framing his eyes, as he slid into the seat beside Frank again with his tray of food. 

“Hey Frankie! It’s lasagna today and it looks alright…did you not want any?” 

“I’m a vegetarian.” Frank replied, rather deadpan because he didn’t know how else to react. This boy was acting as if he’d known Frank his whole life. 

“You’re a vegetarian? That’s cool! No, seriously, it is! I think it’s awesome how you believe in something so much to actually take a physical stand against it, instead of just being one of those people who are like ‘oh the treatment and slaughtering of animals are wrong, but I’m still going to eat the meat because it tastes good.’ You know?” Frank did know, but he couldn’t find the words to say he did. His friends and family always told him that he had too much energy for one person but Frank was almost certain that if they met Gerard they’d eat those words. Gerard had too much energy for _ten_ people it seemed.

“Gee!” A voice across the lunchroom called out, hurrying over to Frank’s table, a weary look across his face. “You can’t just run off like that, remember last time?” The new kid was tall and skinny, a pair of glasses balancing steadily on the end of his nose so that he had to tilt his head up all the time just to be able to see through the lenses.

“I know…” Gerard hung his head, a flash of regret in his eyes before it was gone, just like that, and he was back to grinning brightly, staring up at the unknown boy. “But it’s okay! This is my friend! So I’m safe! See!” Gerard rolled up his sleeves and shoved his arms across the table, wrists up, for the boy to take a look.

“ _Gerard!_ ” the boy hissed, yanking his sleeves down for him before anybody could see, but it wasn’t quick enough until Frank caught a quick sight of what looked to be scars along his arms.

“Sorry! Sorry…” Gerard mumbled, his demeanor becoming sad quickly, his shoulders hunching as if he was trying to fold in on himself. “I forgot…sorry…” the boy still standing sighed, running his fingers through his hair.

“It’s okay.” When it appeared that Gerard wasn’t moving any time soon, he sent an apologetic look Frank’s way. “Um, do you mind if I…?” he gestured to the empty seats on the table.

“Uh, no, sure, whatever.” Frank mumbled lamely. None of his other friends had arrived yet and he was beginning to feel a little uncomfortable being sat with two people he didn’t really know that well, no matter how well one of them claimed to know _him_. The boy placed his tray down on the table and took the seat across from Gerard.

“You must be Frankie then, I’m assuming?” Frank wasn’t sure why this new boy would assume such a thing like that. He’d never met this boy in his life.

“Frank.” He corrected. He didn’t need two people calling him ‘Frankie’ for the rest of his life.

“Ah, Frank. I’m Mikey. Gerard’s brother.” Mikey held out his hand across the table, really formal for a high school kid, but Frank took it nonetheless, giving it a firm shake before retreating his back to the safety of his lap. “Sorry about Gerard, sometimes he gets a little too excited.”

“You don’t have to fucking apologise for me like I’m someone’s kid you’re stuck babysitting, Jesus.” Gerard sniped angrily, but Mikey just raised his brows at him as if to say _‘Really? You want me to start this now?’_ and Gerard went back to hanging his head in silent shame. Great. Now Frank was going to be stuck between some awkward sibling argument for the rest of lunch.

“Iero! You’re a fucking liar about that English homework!” Bob sauntered over to their table with Ray and Patrick in tow, and Frank could’ve cried out in relief that his actual friends had come to unintentionally rescue him. “Every single answer you gave me! Every single one! I’ve got detention thank you very much.” 

“Maybe then next time you’ll do your own homework, Bryar.” Frank smirked at the blonde.

“You can forget about me helping you with math ever again.”

“You suck at math anyway, Toro’s the one I go to for that shit.” Noticing the strange look his three friends were sending to Mikey, Frank thought he ought to explain. “Uh, guys, this is Mikey. Gerard’s brother.” Bob just nodded, sliding in the seat beside Frank, Patrick gave a small wave, taking the seat next to Bob, and Ray smiled shyly, blushing ever so slightly as he sat down beside Mikey.

“Haven’t I seen you around before?” Ray asked, pulling his lunch out of his backpack.

“Yeah, I’m in the year below, but Gerard only started last week.” 

“Oh,” Ray nodded before turning to Gerard. “How come you only started last week?” Gerard didn’t answer, instead he kept his head hung and his eyes cast down, still seeming sad from before. Ray looked to Frank as if he somehow knew what the fuck was going on, but Frank just gave small shake of his head, just as confused as he was. Mikey must have kicked Gerard under the table or something to get his attention because the two looked up at each other, the younger brother sending Gerard a small smile which instantly kicked up Gerard’s mood a notch and before Frank could even blink he was back to having his ear talked off by the fiery red head. 

Frank’s last class of the day was art, which it turned out he had with Gerard. Gerard was over the moon to find out he shared his favourite subject with Frank, but Frank was a little less thrilled. He wasn’t sure what to make of this Gerard character yet. Sure, he seemed nice enough but there was no dodging the fact that there was a severely high chance this guy was _insane_. 

Apparently Frank had nothing to worry about. Art was the only thing that shut Gerard up. He was silent practically the entire time as soon as he got his fingers wrapped around a pencil, only talking to ask Frank if it was okay if they sat next to each other. Frank wasn’t too bad at art, he had the basics down, but he had a habit of watching people draw rather than participating himself. He found himself staring at Gerard’s paper for considerable amounts of time, but he just couldn’t help it. The boy was good. Amazing in fact. He looked up a couple of times to find Gerard’s brows knitted into a concentrating frown. 

The boy was pretty; he’d give him that, really, really pretty actually. His skin looked startlingly pale against the contrast of his hair and his hazel eyes seeming even darker than they really were. Frank couldn’t help but notice the high cheekbones helping to frame his face, and had a sudden urge to reach and touch them. He didn’t of course, but the thought was there.

“You’re staring.” Gerard’s voice snapped Frank out of whatever trance he’d been in, his mouth quirking up at the side as he continued to sketch, not even glancing in Frank’s direction.

“No I’m not.” Frank huffed, feeling his cheeks heat up at being caught out.

“It’s okay. I don’t mind when it’s you.”

“Well that’s nice, but I wasn’t.”

“Whatever you say, Frankie.” The lesson continued on with Frank sneaking glances at Gerard’s drawings every now and again, but other than that he tried his best to concentrate on his own work. 

As the lesson came to an end, Frank shoved his clutter into his bag making a beeline for the door, his intentions for doing so being to get away from Gerard as quick as possible. He felt too many emotions at once being around the boy, and it just down right confused him. 

He weaved his way between students, catching himself on their bags and muttering out half-hearted apologies, but never stopping. 

“Frankie! Hey, Frankie!” Frank cringed at the nickname but forced himself to turn around. Ignoring the guy would just be really harsh, and even Frank wasn’t that much of an asshole…well. He watched Gerard race after him while still packing away his sketchbook and pencils, dropping several of them as a student knocked into him. Rolling his eyes heavily, Frank begrudgingly made his way over to the clumsy red head, helping him to collect the stationary and art utensils that had rolled towards the lockers. “Thanks.” Gerard smiled, taking the equipment off Frank and shoving them into his bag. “You left so quickly I didn’t have time to put everything away.” He laughed nervously before standing up and walking by Frank’s side.

“You didn’t have to leave with me.” He was trying so hard to keep any annoyance out of his voice, he really was.

“I told Mikey I was walking home with you today.” As if that explained everything.

“…Okay? Well actually I have some stuff to sort out –“

“But Mikey will have already left now.” 

“Well then walk home by yourself.” Gerard tightened his grip on his backpack and looked down at his feet, toeing the ground. “What?” 

“…I…I’m not supposed to…” 

“Are you fucking kidding me? What are you, _five?_ ” 

“No! It’s just…I’m just not supposed to, okay? I would if I could, it’s not like I’m scared or anything but…my Dad will totally freak out if he finds out I walked back by myself and Mikey will get in loads of trouble too I just…please?” The hallways were pretty empty by now so thankfully no one was around to hear the absolute cringe worthy conversation taking place. 

“Jesus Christ, fine, _fine_.” Frank groaned, giving in to the poor sap. Why couldn’t the guy walk home by himself? Now it felt like he was stuck babysitting a seventeen year old with the mental age of five. If this was going to become a regular thing then Frank was going to need more information about the guy. 

They mainly walked in silence, Gerard breaking out into a jog every now and again to catch up with Frank. 

“Sorry. I didn’t think you’d be so mad about it.” Gerard apologised, falling back a little. Frank sighed, realising it was useless to get annoyed at the kid, especially if he really did have the mentality of a five year old. 

“I’m not mad.” He settled upon, slowing down so that Gerard wouldn’t have to keep running to catch up. “Just…how come you have to have a bodyguard to walk home?” 

“Sometimes I get into trouble…that’s all.” Gerard began wringing out his hands nervously and Frank guessed it was because he wasn’t supposed to talk about whatever the reason really was. 

“I liked your drawings, uh, from earlier.” Frank began, changing the conversation to something a little less uncomfortable for the both of them. 

“Really?” Gerard seemed to perk up at his, going off on a tangent about how sometimes he isn’t sure if he gets the shading right or whatever, or the dimensions correct, and he goes on an even longer rant about how he prefers to draw characters from comic books and horror movies, things like that. The last part catches Frank’s attention. 

“You’re into that sort of stuff?”

“Yeah! Why wouldn’t I be? I mean, I spend a lot of time by myself so I need to occupy it with something.” By the time Gerard had led them both to the front of his house, they were deep in conversation about _The Texas Chainsaw Massacre vs. Dawn of the Dead_. Gerard seemed like a completely normal guy by this point, not someone who needed a babysitter to walk home. The guy was strange. Before they’d even made it up the steps to Gerard’s house, the door flung open revealing a frantic Mikey.

“Gerard! Thank fucking Christ!” Mikey reached out, grabbing his brother’s arm and yanking him inside. “What the fuck, Gerard? Dad’s been going fucking crazy!” 

“I – huh?” Frank stood there, dumbfounded, not entirely sure what was happening. “He told me you’d said it was fine for him to walk home with me.”

“Yeah I bet he did.” Mikey was still glaring at Gerard while Gerard just stood there, looking guilty.

“I was with Frankie. I was fine.”

“But none of us _knew that_. Shit, Gerard, Dad’s been giving me so much crap over it as well.”

“Sorry Mikes.” 

“Mikey’s not the only one you should be apologising to.” A deep voice behind them stated. A tall man appeared in the doorway, placing two firm hands on Gerard’s shoulders, pulling him back. The man wasn’t that large, and even though he was taller than Frank (most people were), he thought he’d be able to defend himself against the guy if he needed to, which with the way the man was looking at him, he may need to. Frank assumed the guy was Gerard and Mikey’s Dad, well who else was it going to be?

“I’m sorry Dad, really. I…it won’t happen again.” Gerard mumbled, unable to meet Frank’s gaze. 

“Hm, yes, well. Go upstairs, we’ll talk about it later.” Mr. Way muttered, sending a glare at Frank as if it was his fucking fault that Gerard had lied. 

“Okay…well…I’m gonna head off now. Um, I’ll see you tomorrow then.” Frank waved awkwardly, not that either of the brothers saw before Mr. Way had slammed the door in his face. “Right. Well. Alright then.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter the next day, go me eh? Well, I'll be able to post daily for a couple more chapters, and hopefully very regularly after that when I've written more of it. Anyhow, enjoy!


	3. Chapter Three

Frank got to school really, really early the next day. Well, he hadn’t really had any choice in the matter. With the weather getting colder, his Mom was reluctant to let him brace the chill of the morning air, even when he was heavily equipped with coats and scarfs and three unnecessary pairs of socks. She usually drove him to school but she had to go into work a little earlier than usual meaning that Frank had to be dropped off way earlier than usual. No matter how much he argued the fact that he would not get a cold which would then turn out to be flu which would then turn into pneumonia (because it was Frank, and everything had to be stepped up with him according to his Mother) just by walking to school for one day, she had still practically dragged him by the collar of his jacket and thrown him into the passenger seat. 

He despised school without having the extra hour having to wait for the lessons to actually start. What was even worse about being dropped off so early was that it happened to be on a _Wednesday_ , and on a _Wednesday_ the asshole jocks who breathe, eat and sleep sport come in for an early circuit training session. Frank had no idea who in their right mind would come in at 7:00am to fucking _run_ , no matter how good it looked when trying out for the football team. Pure insanity. 

This meant that Frank would have an hour of ‘quality time’ with any of the asshole jocks that decided to take a wonder through the school, thus increasing his chance for some douchebag comments to be thrown his way and maybe a hard shove into one of the lockers. Maybe. 

Groaning internally, he pushed open the doors to the school, trudging his way to his locker to get out his books for the day. _Shit_ , he fucking forgot to do his math homework as well and Mrs. Newman was the type of teacher to actually check, not just to call out your name and to take your word for it.

He struggled with the combination for a few seconds before yanking the sheet of metal almost off its hinges, sticking his head inside to search for what he needed.

“You’re here early.” The sudden exhale of warm air behind his neck startled Frank, causing him to jump and bang the top of his head against the roof of the locker. 

“Shit!” Rubbing his hand over the possible lump forming on his scalp, he carefully removed himself from his locker to find, oh, who other than Gerard, smiling as happily as ever. “You fucking scared me. Where’s your babysitter?” Gerard frowned at this, chewing on his already bitten down to the skin thumbnail. 

“You mean Mikey? Over there.” He nodded down the hall towards the boy’s toilets where Frank saw Mikey who seemed content that Gerard had someone to watch over him and went to do his business in the bathroom. “And he’s not my babysitter.” Frank had so many valid arguments to that statement, but bit them back, realising that Gerard was probably just as stubborn as he was, if not more, and that they’d be stood by the lockers for days just trying to prove the other one wrong. 

“Whatever. How come you’re here so early?” 

“I could ask you the same thing. But I’m always here at this time, Mikey and me. We help out setting up the art room before classes start. Well, _I_ help out, Mikey usually just sits and watches.” 

“Help out in the art room?” Frank wrinkled up his nose. Who would offer to get up an hour earlier every day just to set up the art room? “Why?”

“I like it in there. Plus this way I get on the teacher’s good side so he lets me use any art supplies I want, whenever I want.”

“That’s pretty lame.”

“Well what are _you_ doing here then?” 

“My Mom had to leave earlier for work.”

“And you couldn’t walk?”

“I’m prone to getting ill and Mom’s a worrier.” 

“That’s pretty lame.” Gerard grinned back. 

“Shut up.” Frank muttered feebly, reaching for the last few books before slamming the door to his locker shut. 

“Aw, it’s okay Frankie, I like having you here.” Gerard cooed, slinging an arm around one of Frank’s shoulder while resting his chin on the other. Frank could’ve shrugged him off, pushed him away, but to be fair it didn’t bother him that much. He was used to having his personal space invaded by Pete so this wasn’t much different, besides, he was known for invading personal space a lot too, he couldn’t help it, he just had to touch. 

“Hey! Looks like the fag finally got a boyfriend!” Frank rolled his eyes as a group of three guys from the early run team made their way towards him. He’d encountered them enough times by now to recognise their faces but did not care enough to learn their names. Besides, Asshole 1, Asshole 2 and Asshole 3 seemed pretty appropriate. 

He sighed loudly, shoving his books in his backpack, letting Gerard’s arm drop from around him.

“You shouldn’t say that.” Gerard narrowed his eyes at the one who’d said the comment, Asshole 1, the ‘ring leader’ of the three.

“What?” Asshole 1 laughed, a look on his face that suggested he was wondering why the hell Gerard was even talking, and to be honest Frank was wondering the exact same thing.

“That word. Fag. That’s – It’s not a nice word. You shouldn’t say it.” Frank wanted to slap a hand over Gerard’s mouth and drag him away before he made the situation even worse. He could easily throw a punch at the guys, knock them flat on their asses, but he’d already gotten into three fights this term and one more the principal said he’d be suspended. He didn’t much care for the principal or whether he got a suspension or not, but his Mom was adamant that he stay out of trouble unless he wanted to spend the summer helping out at his Aunt’s antique store. _No thank you_. 

“I shouldn’t say a lot of things but I still do, _fag_. Go back to sucking each other’s dicks.” Frank shook his head at the lack of originality in their insults and stepped to the side to let them through as they made the move to leave, just wanting to be rid of them already, but Gerard had other ideas. Gerard stepped in front of the path of Asshole 1, blocking the way. 

“Move it.” Asshole 3 hissed, glaring daggers at both Frank and Gerard. 

“Not until you apologise to Frankie.” _Oh God_. Frank just wanted to ground to open up and swallow him whole now.

“Gerard, let’s just –“

“Listen to Frankie, your boyfriend.” Asshole 1 mocked at the both of them.

“Fuck off.” Frank snapped, getting more than fed up with the three of them.

“What the fuck did you just say to me?” Before Frank could blink, Asshole 1 had shoved him into the lockers, hard, the metal clinging loudly throughout the hallway. He was about to forget whatever warnings his Mother had given him and show the guy what he said with a solid right hook, but in the next second Asshole 1 was gone from in front of him and was instead being held up against the lockers beside him, by _Gerard_. Of all people! 

“Don’t you touch him!” Gerard snarled, his arm against the guy’s throat, pressing in dangerously hard. “Now apologise!” Asshole 2 and 3 were too stunned to move or act on their friend’s behalf. Frank wasn’t too sure what to do either. He’d never seen Gerard look so angry before, so _scary_. His eyes had turned dark and his lips had curled back over his teeth and it must’ve been even more terrifying from Asshole 1’s point of view as he was practically trembling with fear. It was quite funny to watch. “Apologise!”

“I…I…I’m…” the guy couldn’t get out more than one word due to the extreme pressure Gerard was putting on his throat.

“Apologise!”

“Gerard, he can’t – you’re – your hold’s too tight.” Frank finally got the words out. As funny as it was to watch the guy shaking and practically pissing in fear, he didn’t really want to watch a student choke to death first thing before class. That was too heavy for a school morning. “Gerard, come on, let him go now.” He repeated when Gerard still hadn’t loosened his grip and Asshole 1’s face was extremely red, his eyes bulging. “Gerard, stop! You’re choking him!” He latched onto Gerard’s elbow, trying to pull his arm away, but _shit_ , Gerard was fucking _strong_. The guy began clawing at Gerard’s arm, but he was already on the verge of passing out and was too weak to actually do anything. Asshole 2 and 3 finally snapped out of whatever trance they were in and grabbed at Gerard, trying to pull him off their friend, but Gerard wasn’t budging. It was as if he hadn’t even noticed any of them. “Gerard! Jesus Christ!” 

Beginning to panic, Frank placed his hands on either side of Gerard’s face, desperately trying to get his attention. “Gerard, no!” Maybe his voice was louder this time, or sounded more frightening or dominant, but whatever it was, it finally reached through to Gerard, who blinked several times, turning his face to Frank before releasing his death grip on the guy’s neck.

The guy fell to floor, retching and coughing, sucking air into his lungs, as there wasn’t enough. He got to his feet shakily, casting a horrified glance to Gerard and backing away. 

“You’re fucking crazy.” Asshole 1 jabbed a finger in Gerard’s direction, croaking out the insult before scrabbling to get away down the hall with his friends in tow. Gerard just gave a small frown and went back to chewing on his thumb. 

“What the fuck was that?” Frank demanded when Gerard still hadn’t said anything. He appeared startled by Frank’s anger, still not removing his thumb from his mouth.

“Huh?”

“What do you mean ‘huh’? What was with the choking?!”

“He was supposed to apologise. And then he shoved you. He might have hurt you.” 

“That doesn’t mean to choke the fucking guy to death!”

“He didn’t die, Frankie.” Gerard rolled his eyes, as if Frank was the one being ridiculous here.

“What’s going on?” Mikey’s voice sounded as he began making his way towards them by the lockers.

“Oh thank God!” Frank sighed, shoving Gerard towards his brother. “Take your psycho brother back already.” He huffed, running a hand through his messy bangs, turning to find somewhere, _anywhere_ that was away from those two. 

“Frankie? Where are you going?”

“It doesn’t matter!” 

*  
By second period Frank was still muttering insults under his breath about Gerard and how crazy he was. He was bathed so deep in his infuriation that he didn’t even notice he’d been chewing angrily on his pen and had managed to bite straight through, the ink staining his mouth. 

His teacher sighed at him, reluctantly excusing him from the class to go and sort himself out. It wasn’t until he had a mouth full of the school’s mucky tap water when he noticed Mikey stood behind him. Practically choking on the liquid, he spat it out, turning to stare angrily. 

“You two have a thing for sneaking up on people.” He wiped his mouth on the back of his sleeve before hoisting himself up onto one of the basins, sitting on it and facing the younger brother. “What are you doing in here?” 

“Cutting class.” He replied simply, as if it was something he did all the time. “Gym.” 

“Huh.” Frank kicked his feet out, watching as one of his laces became undone and trailed along the dirty floor. “You’re brother’s insane, you know that right?”

“He’s not insane.” He replied rather defensively, which was understandable, the guy was his brother after all. 

“Well he’s not sane.”

“He told me what happened though.”

“And you still don’t believe he’s crazy? Look, I know he’s your brother and all but there is something wrong with him.”

“There’s nothing wrong with him he’s just – it’s hard for people who don’t know him to understand, alright?”

“Whatever man.” Frank hopped off the counter, giving himself a quick once over in the mirror before planning to make his way back to class. Half of his bottom lip was stained blue but apart from that most of the ink had gone.

“He really likes you, you know.” 

“Uh huh.” Frank didn’t much care. 

“No, seriously. You got him to stop before, right? Usually he doesn’t listen to anyone but me. It means he really likes you.” He pushed his glasses further up his nose before shrugging at Frank. “Can’t understand why though. You’re a bit of an asshole.”

“I – what – _excuse me?_ ” Mikey didn’t say anything else so Frank just left, making his way back to math even more annoyed than he had been than before.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do enjoy writing a badass Gerard character
> 
> I also just had to go through my other chapters and put in all the code for italics because I forgot it doesn't automatically do it when I paste it from my word documents, so that was fun


	4. Chapter Four

Gerard and Mikey sat at Frank and his friend’s table for lunch again, and Frank thought that more than likely it was going to become a permanent occurrence. Pete finally met Mikey, which Frank wasn’t sure if it was a good thing or not. The way Pete was eyeing up the younger brother made him a little uncomfortable. 

“I’m not crazy.” 

“What?” Frank turned his attention away from the leering Pete to look at Gerard who was pushing around the pasta on his plate, making it seem like he had eaten more than he really had. 

“I’m not crazy.”

“Let me guess…you're mother had you tested?” Gerard just rolled eyes and went back to playing with his food before letting his fork clatter loudly to the table, turning to snarl at Frank.

“Fuck you.” He snapped before getting up from the table, leaving his tray full of food and storming towards the canteen exit. Mikey sent a cold glare Frank’s way before too getting up and following his brother, leaving Pete looking a little disappointed. 

“What did you do?” Ray asked incredulously, but all Frank could do was raise his brows and shrug. He didn’t really want have to explain the whole ordeal. 

He supposed he had been a little harsh to Gerard; after all, the guy had kinda helped him out. His last class was art again so guessed he could talk to Gerard about it then. 

*  
“Look Gerard, I’m sorry for…” what was he actually sorry for? He hadn’t actually _done_ or _said_ anything, he’d said all the stuff to Mikey and it wasn’t Frank’s fault if brother’s liked to talk. All he’d really done was be a little ungrateful. He could make that work. “I’m sorry for not thanking you, for this morning. I mean you did stick up for me, so thanks.” 

“Mr. Iero.” The teacher warned before continuing his talk on tertiary colours. 

“And I don’t think you’re crazy.” He whispered, because he supposed he should put Gerard’s mind at ease. 

“Liar.” Gerard whispered back, tipping his head forward so that his red hair hid his face. “I know you still think I’m some sort of crazy psychopath that probably likes to kick puppies in their free time.” 

“Not puppies…people.” He joked, and Gerard gave a small laugh. “But seriously, I am sorry though. But you have to admit, how you acted before, this morning, was a little crazy.” 

“Mr. Iero, I don’t want to have to tell you again.” Frank sighed, edging closer to Gerard so he wouldn’t have to talk as loudly. 

“I know.” Gerard sighed, looking over to Frank out of the corner of his eye. “Sometimes I get carried away. Sorry.”

“So I guess we’re both sorry then. Awesome. I’m pretty sure now no one’s going to mess with me when you’re around, which is awesome too.”

“Mr. Iero! Is your conversation more important than my teaching right now?” 

“I don’t know about importance but it sure as hell is a lot more interesting.” He muttered under his breath, eliciting a giggle out of Gerard. 

*  
Frank was sick. It had been raining on the way home and he’d left his coat in his locker. Consequently he got soaked through and was a shivering wet mess by the time he made it to his front door. This only weakened his already shitty immune system, and two days later he was bed ridden with the flu. It fucking sucked.

He passed the time by binge watching B-movies, having a _Lord of the Rings_ marathon and playing any horror movie he could get his hands on. His limbs were stiff, his throat was sore from coughing so much, he had a raging headache 24/7 and he couldn’t seem to eat anything without bringing it back up minutes later. He couldn’t sleep because he couldn’t breathe through his nose seeing as it was blocked and breathing through his mouth just hurt his sensitive throat too much for him to be able to get comfortable. 

He was just about to try and call for his Mom to ask her if she could put on another film for him as the end credits began to roll for Beetlejuice, when there was a hesitant knock at his door. His Mom would have just walked right in, she didn’t really understand the privacy a teenage boy liked to have, so he knew this was someone else. 

“Uh, come in?” he rasped, wincing as his throat protested. 

A bright shade of red appeared accompanied by a shy smile. 

“Hey, Frankie.” Gerard smiled, stepping into the room and closing the door quietly behind him. “I heard you were sick.”

“Aren’t you supposed to be at school?” 

“Um…it’s Sunday…”

“What? Holy shit, I missed the weekend.” Gerard smiled apologetically, as if Frank being ill was his fault, and pulled up his desk chair beside the bed, sitting down in it. “Where’s Mikey? I thought you weren’t allowed out by yourself?” 

“He promised he wouldn’t tell Dad. Plus he trusts me because it’s you.” 

“Right. So where is he?”

“Somewhere with Pete I think.” Oh. _Oh_. Frank didn’t really want to know. “What you watching?”

“Oh, uh, it just finished actually. I was about to watch something else.” 

“Can I choose something?” Gerard asked excitedly, eyes lighting up. Frank nodded, deciding that it just saved him a job, and weakly pointed in the direction where his collapsing stacks of DVD’s were. Gerard got up and happily went over to them, beginning to sift through the cases, reading the backs on some of them. “So what is it you’ve got, just the flu?” Frank frowned at how he called it ‘just the flu’ when it felt like the fucking apocalypse of Frank’s body. 

“Think so, hope so anyway.” 

“Oh! Can we watch this, please?” Gerard was enthusiastically waving around a DVD too fast for Frank to actually see what it was, but he nodded anyway, not really caring. “Awesome!” He figured out how to work Frank’s DVD player, putting in the disc before going to take his place back in the chair. It turned out he’d put on _Nightmare on Elm Street_ , which Frank had actually watched only yesterday, but he really didn’t mind. “I haven’t seen this film for a good couple of years! I mean, I never forgot about it or anything but then I found Romero’s stuff and got into all of that and then Mikey convinced me to watch the remake versions of everything which he claimed were the _same_ and I spent hours arguing with him over how that was not true, not true _at all_. I mean have you seen the remake of _Dawn of the Dead_? Not the fucking same at all.” Frank had almost forgotten how much Gerard could _talk_. 

A quarter of the way through the film, Frank had a coughing fit, a violent one that caused him to hunch over himself and clutch at the bed sheets. Gerard left the room only to return moments later with a bottle of water and what looked like a wet flannel. 

“I don’t know if you can swallow very well but I got you water just in case, and you look hot so I brought this.” He handed over the water bottle, which Frank thanked him for croakily and took a small sip, and then he placed the cold flannel on Frank’s forehead before taking his seat again. It was weird having Gerard sort of look after him. He wasn’t sure if he liked it or not but there wasn’t much he could do about it in the condition he was in right now anyway. 

Frank was able to watch Nancy fall asleep in the bath and Freddie’s hand begin to emerge out of the water before he fell asleep himself. He didn’t dream of anything and when he finally awoke it was dark and Gerard had gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it's such a short chapter today, but it kinda ended where I wanted it to so yeah, enjoy :)


	5. Chapter Five

Gerard came over every day after school when Frank was ill. At first it was a little weird, seeing Gerard so much in his own home but after a while he began to look forward to Gerard’s visits. Company other than his Mom’s was nice. It turned out Gerard had a lot of comics and he began bringing them around for Frank to read to pass the time while Gerard usually drew in his sketchbook. They didn’t even have to talk, and most of the time they didn’t. Gerard would sketch for a few hours while Frank read through the comic books. Sometimes Gerard would show Frank some of his drawings, zombies devouring limbs, his own little comic strips and sometimes, if he was lucky, when Gerard was turning the pages to show Frank, he’d catch glimpses of more detailed sketches he’d done, like of real people, sometimes even himself. They were really amazing. Frank never mentioned anything to Gerard about them. If Gerard didn’t want to show him then that was his choice.

By the end of the week, Frank was feeling much better. His fever had gone down, his throat hardly hurt at all and he wasn’t coughing as much. A couple more days and he’d be back to his usual health.

“Hey, Frankie!” Gerard came into his room, dropping his satchel by the door and climbing up onto Frank’s bed, sketchbook and pencil in hand. “Feeling better?” Frank was sat up in bed and had actually managed to find the energy to wash himself and get dressed in a t-shirt and some boxer shorts. He smiled at Gerard, stretching out his legs to rest them on Gerard’s lap. In the past few days Frank had really come to like Gerard. The guy just seemed pretty normal. He was funny and easy to talk to. He wouldn’t have thought that the guy who’d had the jock up against the lockers and Gerard were even the same person. 

Frank also had to admit that the guy was ridiculously cute. Fucking beautiful in fact. More often than not, Frank found himself staring and had to avert his gaze quickly whenever Gerard looked over. He’d be lying to himself if he said thoughts of Gerard’s pale skin, his hair slicked with sweat and his mouth formed in a perfect ‘O’ hadn’t passed his mind when he woke up in the morning and lazily rutted against the mattress. And he’d be lying if he said he didn’t feel a blush spreading up the back of his neck whenever Gerard grinned at him.

“Yeah, where’s your brother today?”

“Um, at Ray’s I think.” Well, at least that was a change from Pete’s; he knew Ray wouldn’t try any sexual advances on the brother of the guy he may or may not be crushing on. 

“Doesn’t your Dad think it’s strange that you’ve been home late every day this week?” 

“He thinks me and Mikey have joined the after school music club.”

“Do you guys play anything?” 

“Mikey plays bass, I can sing a little but not – I don’t like to.” 

“Wait, wait, you sing?” Gerard could _sing_? Of fucking course he could, with a mouth like that. Frank could only imagine. Gerard nodded shyly, clutching his sketchbook tighter. “That’s so cool, are you any good?” 

“If you’re asking if I’m going to show you, the answer is no.” Frank pouted in response and Gerard just laughed, shaking his head. “Okay, I won’t sing for you, but I’ll show you something else?” he offered with a small smile.

“Alright.” Frank removed his legs from Gerard’s lap and shifted over on the bed so that Gerard could manoeuvre beside him, pressing up against Frank’s side. 

“Don’t be weirded out, okay?”

“Um…okay?” Gerard opened his sketchbook and turned it to a page with a drawing of Frank. It was a really detailed drawing too, almost like a photograph. It was clear he’d spent a lot of time on it. “Wow, this is…this is amazing. Why would I be weirded out?”

“Well because I know I didn’t ask for your permission or anything, and some people find it weird if other people just start randomly drawing them, and I didn’t want you to like, freak out or anything, because I didn’t mean it in a –“

“Hey, I’m not freaked out. This is amazing, Gee, seriously. I love it.” He stared back down at the sketch beginning to wonder how long it took Gerard to do it. Frank had watched him draw before and he could get things done pretty quickly, but this looked like he’d taken his time. “What?” he asked when he saw Gerard was practically beaming at him.

“You called me ‘Gee’. I told me you could call me that when I first met you, and you never have until now.” 

“You remember that?”

“Of course I do! Who could forget a conversation with a pretty face like yours, Frankie?” he bumped Frank’s shoulder and Frank blushed, bumping his shoulder right back. “I also remember the time in the rain. You were sad that day.”

“Yeah…that was, uh, that was the day I found out my Dad had left.” A second hadn’t even passed before Gerard had his arm around Frank, pressing up against him just like he had that day on the bench.

“M’sorry Frankie.” He whispered, leaning his head on Frank’s shoulder sympathetically. 

“That’s exactly what you said to me that day too. You hugged me and said those two words. I didn’t realise it was you till I got back home.” He admitted, turning his head to face Gerard. “It’s weird, I never thought nine years after meeting you we’d be…well…like this.” 

“Yeah I know…you’re sort of a loser.” Gerard gave a lopsided smile, poking Frank in the side. 

“What!” 

“You’re a horror movie fanatic that can quote _Lord of the Rings_ and is off sick 60% of the time.” 

“Fuck you!” Frank laughed anyway, turning around and getting up on his knees, leaning into Gerard. “It’s not my fault I have a shitty immune system. And talk about being a hypocrite. You’ve quoted _Star Wars_ eight times this week!” 

“Hey, I didn’t say I wasn’t a loser either.” They were grinning back at each other now, and Frank couldn’t ignore the funny feeling in the pit of his stomach. He’d been well enough to know that it wasn’t the illness causing those feelings. “Um, Frankie?” Frank hadn’t realised that he’d managed to begin straddling Gerard, his knees caging in Gerard’s thighs. He wasn’t sure what he was doing in the next moment. He wasn’t even 100% sure if Gerard was into guys but Frank was dosed up on cough syrup and painkillers and didn’t much care right now.

“Do you…do you want me to move?” Frank watched Gerard’s throat as he swallowed.

“…No?” 

“You don’t sound too sure.” Frank smirked, shuffling his knees forward ever so slightly so that they were even closer to each other. “Is this okay?” he asked, his voice low. Gerard merely nodded, sucking his bottom lip in between his teeth. “And what about this, is this okay?” he asked, nudging Gerard’s legs apart and sitting down in between them, draping his arms loosely around Gerard’s neck. Gerard silently nodded again, his tongue darting out to wet his lips. “What about this?” He’d lowered his voice to a barely audible whisper now, leaning in close so that he could feel Gerard’s breath against his cheek. “This okay?” He didn’t bother to wait for a nod or a shake of the head before he brushed his lips against Gerard.

It was light at first, feather light, lips barely touching, but then he felt Gerard slide a hand around his waist and he began to press in more, his lips parting. Gerard’s mouth was wet and warm, the kiss messy and frantic, becoming so aggressive that Frank had to take a second to pull away and breathe; he still wasn’t completely over the flu yet. Gerard used this time to move his head away, much to Frank’s dismay, his eyebrows knitting into a frown.

“We shouldn’t – I mean – you’re ill, Frankie –“

“Don’t care.” Frank rushed, grabbing Gerard’s face and not even politely shoving his tongue in his mouth. Frank let out a soft moan which at any other time he would have been embarrassed about but right now he couldn’t care less, not with Gerard’s hands roaming the length of his back like they were. He moved his tongue towards the roof of Gerard’s mouth, running it along the edge of his teeth and – “Ow!” Frank pulled away sharply, a metallic taste beginning to fill his mouth. “Ow, motherfucker, _ow_ ,” Frank hissed, touching his fingers to his tongue, bringing them away bloody. Gerard slapped a hand over his mouth, his eyes wide and horrified. “What the fuck, Gerard, your teeth are fucking _sharp_.”

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’m so sorry!” Gerard panicked, wriggling out from underneath Frank, practically flinging himself off the bed and making a grab for his bag. 

“Hey, Gee, it’s not your fault, it’s –“

“I’m so sorry, Frankie! I didn’t mean to! I’m so sorry!” and then before Frank could get out another word, Gerard had bolted out the door, leaving a stunned Frank behind on the bed, his tongue still bleeding. 

Cursing, he swilled the blood out of his mouth with the water from the bottle Gerard had brought, spitting it out into the ‘emergency sick bowl’ his Mom had given him. Gerard had been in such a rush to leave that he’d left his notebook and pencils behind. 

Frank didn’t know what to think.

*  
The next two days Frank had off, Gerard didn’t come to visit. He supposed he shouldn’t have been all that surprised; the older brother had been really freaked out. He was well enough to go back to school the following week and had been planning on seeking Gerard out and talking about what had happened.

But apparently Gerard had other ideas. 

The guy managed to avoid Frank the entire day, even in their art class when they sat _right next to each other _. It was fucking ridiculous. All he’d done was cut his tongue on Gerard’s teeth, it wasn’t like Gerard had a kink and bit him or anything…though Frank probably wouldn’t mind if he’d done that either.__

__He caught sight of Mikey on his way to his fourth period, running up to the younger brother and pulling him to the side._ _

__“Hey, so…did Gerard happen to tell you what happened last week…?”_ _

__“Of course he did,” Mikey sighed, rolling his eyes heavily. “I’m his _brother_ , plus, if you haven’t noticed, the guy doesn’t fucking shut up.”_ _

__“So you know what’s wrong with him.” Mikey just raised his brow in an of-course-I-fucking-know-I’m-his-brother kind of way. “Okay, so would you mind cluing me in? Because I have no idea.” Mikey looked a little uneasy at this, chewing on the inside of his cheek._ _

__“I don’t think it’s my place to tell you.”_ _

__“Come on, Mikey! Please? He’s been avoiding me all day, how else am I supposed to find out what it was?”_ _

__“I’m pretty sure he’ll tell you himself at some point.” Mikey shrugged as if it wasn’t that much of a deal, pulling his arm away from Frank and heading off to wherever his next lesson was._ _

__*  
When his last lesson finally came to an end, Frank stalked back to his locker to retrieve his coat so as not to end up with the flu again when he walked home, yanking open his locker and looking for his scarf too. _ _

__“Hey! It’s _Frankie_.” A spiteful voice drawled and Frank didn’t need to turn around to know that it was the gang of three assholes walking towards him. Frank didn’t think he’d ever learn their real names, not that he wanted to. Before he could reluctantly turn around and tell the guys where to fuck off to, he felt several pair of hands push him until he fell into the locker, the door slamming closed behind him. “Have fun, _Frankie_.” The voices laughed before walking away. _ _

__“Fuck!” Frank swore loudly, banging his fist against the narrow side of the locker. He managed to turn himself around so that he was facing the locker door, able to see through the small slits in the metal. Other than the miniscule amount of light seeping in through the gaps, Frank was in pure darkness. His leg was hitched up at a funny angle due to the stacks of books that were at the bottom and the hook at back was painfully digging in between his shoulder blades. “Hello?” He yelled out, hoping that not everyone had gone home yet and there were still a few people that liked to walk through the hallways. His body was folded up at extremely cramped angles; he did not do well with small spaces. “Fucking _fuck!_ ” _ _

__About ten minutes had passed and Frank was almost certain that he was going to rot to death in his locker. No one would find him, he’d be left over night and most likely suffocate, his body never being discovered until weeks later when the smell became so overbearing that someone had to get the janitor._ _

__“I’m going to fucking kill those assholes…” He muttered angrily, grinding his teeth together._ _

__“Frankie?”_ _

__“Oh my God, Gerard is that you? Please tell me that’s fucking you out there!”_ _

__“Uh, yeah, it’s, uh, it’s me.” Frank saw the flaming red hair come into a view and breathed a sigh of relief. “Um, are you in the locker?”_ _

__“Yeah, those assholes pushed me in here, do you think you can let me out? I’ll give you my combo, um, it’s –“_ _

__“Actually, I need to tell you something.”_ _

__“Okay, that’s great Gee, but could you maybe let me out first?” Frank tried hard to keep the annoyance, at the fact that Gerard wasn’t quick to help, out of his voice._ _

__“I…I think it would make things easier if you stayed in there while I told you.” He had to be fucking joking._ _

__“ _Easier for who?!_ ” he cried incredulously, wondering why the hell he was _still_ stuck in a goddamn locker._ _

__“For – for both of us, you know?”_ _

__“No, Gerard, I do not fucking _know_ , the only thing I really give a shit about right now is getting the fuck out of this locker, do you understand?”_ _

__“Okay, so about what happened at yours,” Gerard began, completely ignoring Frank._ _

__“Gerard, I am not joking, let me _out of here_.”_ _

__“Which I’m really sorry about, by the way, I really didn’t mean to.” Frank wasn’t even really listening, _couldn’t_ listen when he was currently locked in a metal box. _ _

__“Gerard, if you open the door now I will not strangle you to death when I get out, how about that?”_ _

__“But my teeth…they – they just come out when I’m excited, and I got excited, you know?” What the fuck was he even on about?_ _

__“Wait, _what?_ What the fuck do you mean your teeth _come out?_ ” There was silence on the other end and Frank had to call upon every ounce of his inner strength not to fucking scream at the guy. Finally, he heard a deep breath being taken on the other side of the door._ _

__“I…uh…actually, never mind, it doesn’t matter…um…I’ll go get Mikey…”_ _

__“What? No! Gerard! Gerard! Let me out!” There was no reply and eventually Frank heard the hurried footsteps of Gerard leaving. “ _Gerard!_ ” He all but screamed, kicking his feet against the door angrily. “Gerard fucking Way, I swear to God if you don’t get the fuck back here and open the fucking door, I’ll –“ _ _

__“Frank?”_ _

__“Mikey? Holy shit, you have to let me the fuck out of here!”_ _

__“Okay, okay, um, combination?” Frank sighed in relief that finally someone was just doing the one thing he’d been begging for, for the last twenty minutes._ _

__“5879.” There were a few seconds of silence while Mikey put in the correct numbers before there was the sound of the familiar click and the door swung open, Frank practically toppling out on top of him. “Thank Christ for that, _motherfucker_.” He steadied himself on his feet before quickly grabbing his backpack, coat and scarf from the locker and slamming it shut before anyone could get the chance to push him in again. “Thanks Mikey.”_ _

__“I’m not even gonna ask…but where’s Gee?”_ _

__“I have no idea, he said he was going to get you.”_ _

__“Shit! That fucker…” Mikey cursed, running his hand through his hair exasperatedly. “Which direction did he go?”_ _

__“I don’t know; I was stuck in a _locker_.” _ _

__“I’ve gotta go and find him –“ before he could dart off, Frank grabbed his arm._ _

__“Wait, I’m coming with you.”_ _

__“No, I don’t think –“_ _

__“Do you really have time to argue about it?”_ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I haven't actually read over this part properly because I was quite busy today and I just wanted to get this chapter out, but I'm hoping it's not too bad, enjoy!


	6. Chapter Six

Frank followed Mikey to the shadiest part of town where he was sure several bodies had been found. He resisted the urge to involuntarily shiver every time they turned into an alley darker than the last or if a stranger began leering at the two of them. Frank had no idea why Gerard would have come here of all places, but who was he to question the guy’s brother?

They turned down a particularly sleazy alleyway, Frank wrinkling his nose up at the stench, when Mikey stopped suddenly, turning around and giving Frank a stern look.

“You cannot freak out.” 

“What? Why would I freak out?” Mikey didn’t answer Frank’s question but instead just raised a brow before turning back around and continuing to venture into the alley. It wasn’t even a minute later until Mikey came to another standstill. 

“Shit.” He swore, running a hand over his face, sighing tiredly. 

“What?” Frank peered around Mikey to see what was going on. “Awesome! You found him!” Frank slapped Mikey on the shoulder as a ‘well done’, watching Gerard’s fiery hair from the distance. It took him a while to realise what Gerard was actually doing. He had someone pressed up against the wall, a girl, and he appeared to be sucking her neck. Something churned in the pit of Frank’s stomach and he immediately felt stupid. Was this Gerard’s girlfriend? Is this why he freaked out at Frank’s house? Oh God, was the guy even into dudes? Frank hadn’t even though to ask around first. Shit. 

Frank was about to tell Mikey he’d wait for him on the street, when he realised that the girl just didn’t seem as into it as Gerard was. Her arms were hanging limply by her sides, her back slumped; Gerard seemed to be the only thing holding her up actually. He reluctantly moved his sight back to Gerard’s mouth on her neck, and even though it was rather dark in the alleyway, Frank could just about see that Gerard’s _teeth_ had pierced two messy holes in the girl’s neck, his tongue lapping up the blood that was oozing out. 

And then Frank threw up. 

He ran towards one of the dumpsters lying around and vomited up his breakfast and lunch behind it, his back heaving painfully with each gag. Gerard was sucking blood, _human blood_ , gulping it down as if it was his life source. And by the looks of it, he was sucking this girl _dry_. She already looked dangerously pale, her balance completely off.

Frank heard Mikey shout something, probably to Gerard, but Frank couldn’t really listen, he was struggling to get his head around what was happening. It seemed like a lifetime before Frank could get his legs to move. He didn’t wait around to see if the girl made it, or if Mikey even got Gerard off the girl in the first place, before he forced himself to leave, to run. 

He ran back through all the alleyways, vaguely hearing someone shouting his name, but he wasn’t going to stop for it. No way in hell was he stopping, or even slowing down, until he was behind the safety of his own door. What _was_ Gerard? He had been sucking the blood from a human, Frank definitely knew that much. Was he some sort of _vampire?_ Only, that couldn’t be true because Frank had seen him in sunlight without burning to ash, oh, and also the fact that vampires _aren’t real_. 

He was a sweaty panting mess by the time he made it home, running up to his room, slamming his door and falling against it. Gerard had his teeth in some girl’s neck, _Gerard_ had his teeth in some girl’s neck, Gerard had his _teeth_ in some girl’s neck, Gerard had his teeth in some girl’s _neck_ , _Gerard_ had his _teeth_ in some girl’s _neck_. Nothing made sense. 

Maybe he hadn’t had his teeth in a poor girl’s neck. Maybe Frank had seen it wrong. Maybe the girl had punctured her throat and Gerard was being helpful by trying to stop the blood flow?

Frank banged his head hard against the door at how stupid that thought was. _Trying to stop the blood flow? With his tongue? Really, Frank?_

He pulled his knees up to his chest, buried his head in his hands and groaned. One half of his brain was telling him how cool this was, that he may very well have just seen a real life _vampire_ , but the other half of his brain was telling him vampires weren’t real but sadistic serial killers were. What was he supposed to do now when he saw them? Act like nothing had happened? Pretend that nothing was wrong? He should probably call the cops or something. That girl was most likely dead. But then what was he going to say, that his friend had vampired out on him?

“Frank?” His Mom’s voice sounded from outside his door. “Frank? Your friends are here to see you, Gerard and, uh, Mike, is it?” There was a low murmuring before he heard his Mom again. “Ah! Mikey! Gerard and Mikey! Frank?” Frank couldn’t see them now. He wasn’t even sure if he wanted to see them ever again. What if they came here to _shut Frank up?_ Oh God, no way was he dealing with this right now. 

He forced out a couple of coughs, which would be rather unconvincing to anyone but his Mom who worried endlessly about his health and would probably believe him if he said he thought he had Myxomatosis. 

“I don’t feel too good…” he rasped, forcing his voice to go lower than it could. 

“Oh no,” his Mom cooed from the other side of the door, and he almost felt guilty for making her worry like this. 

“I’m fine, just…I need to rest.” He said quickly, so she wouldn’t have to worry as much. He listened as his Mom repeated all this back to Gerard and Mikey, adlibbing how Frank might not be up to see anybody today.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, this is OP's boyfriend, just uploading today's chapter for her as unfortunately she's gotten really ill. She'll try and get back to posting as soon as possible but this is just to say that there may be a couple of gaps, I hope you understand and enjoy the chapter. (the illness also explains the short chapter and the lack of italics on today's post, hopefully you like it all the same.)


	7. Chapter Seven

He was really debating over whether or not to turn up to school the next day. He could’ve easily just told his Mom he felt sick and she wouldn’t have even batted an eyelash, but he felt bad for making her worry unnecessarily. So he forced himself out of bed and went through his usual morning routine to get ready for school. 

Whereas it had been Gerard avoiding him before, now it was going to be Frank avoiding Gerard. It was much more difficult than Frank had given him credit for. It was smooth going for the first two periods, but after that it was even more difficult because Gerard was seeking him _out_. At break time he ended up just hiding in one of the smelly bathroom stalls.

By the time he was on his way to his fourth period, he thought maybe he’d made it, that maybe he’d manage to succeed in avoiding Gerard all day, but on the way to the class, an arm snaked out and grabbed him, yanking him into one of the nearby janitors closets. 

A hand slapped over his mouth, silencing his yell of alarm, and the door shut behind him. His eyes widened as Gerard’s face came into focus and he couldn’t help the embarrassing squeak that sounded in his throat. 

“Don’t freak out.” Gerard pleaded, his eyes seeming just as wide as Frank’s right now, as if he was the one that had to be terrified.

“ _Don’t freak out?_ I caught you murdering a girl yesterday and all you can say is _don’t freak out?_ ” 

“I didn’t murder her!” Gerard cried, looking visibly offended by that comment. “She’s not dead…she’s fine now.”

“She’s fine.” Frank deadpanned, totally unconvinced. “Sure, because she looked so fine when she had your teeth in her neck!” Gerard chewed on his lip, seemingly lost for words. “So what are you then?” Frank began, realising he at least needed to walk out of this closet with less questions than when he was dragged into it. “A vampire?”

“What? No!” And Frank was sure that Gerard was trying to hold back a smirk. “I mean, _come on_ , a vampire? Really? First off, you’ve seen me outside in daylight, I have a reflection, and I’m not affected by silver or holy crosses or whatever.” He made it sound like it was _so_ goddamn obvious. 

“Yes but you _did_ have your _teeth_ in a human _neck_ , and you were _sucking out their blood_.” 

“Well, yes, but that doesn’t automatically make me a vampire.”

“No? Just your average psycho then.” Gerard looked hurt by that comment, and Frank almost felt guilty, _almost_ , until he remembered why he’d made that remark. Because it was fucking _true_. 

“It’s not – I’m not…I’m not a fucking vampire. I…it’s called Blood Empowerment. You know like in that anime _Hellsing_?” Frank had to try very hard not to roll his eyes at how Gerard managed to use fucking _Hellsing_ as a comparison. “When Alucard gets stronger when blood is shed? Well it’s sort of like that.”

“Okay, Gee, but are you forgetting that Alucard was a _vampire?_ ” and then he mentally kicked himself for going off topic to start arguing about the logistics of comparing himself to that particular anime.

“Yes, _I know_ , that’s why said it is _like_ that.” He sighed dramatically, running a hand through his fiery locks. “I don’t have any of his cool abilities he gets with it like shapeshifting and immortality and telepathy and teleportation, hypnosis and superhuman speed –“

“Gerard.”

“ _Anyway_ , as I was saying, I can’t do any of that, but I sort of need human blood to survive.”

“The definition of a vampire.”

“I’m _not_ a vampire! And technically that is wrong because vampires can’t starve to death, I _will_ starve to death if I don’t consume the blood. It makes me stronger, mentally and physically, when I’m just around the stuff, but I have to consume it to actually, you know, survive.” Frank didn’t really know what to say. He didn’t know whether to believe it or not. _Blood Empowerment?_ How did he even come across this? “You’re looking skeptical.”

“Well of course I am, my friend just told me he was a vampire.”

“ _Not a vampire!_ ” Gerard growled, his cheeks flaming in frustration. “I have the teeth and need the blood but _that is it_. I age, I can be killed, just _like you_.”

“No, Gerard, not _just like me_ , because unlike you I do not _kill people to survive_.” 

“I don’t kill them!” Gerard exclaimed, horrified.

“So you're telling me that the girl I saw you chomping down on yesterday, she’s alive?”

“Of course!” 

“She was looking particularly pale when I saw her, and you didn’t show any signs of finishing.” 

“I know, I know, it’s just…we have a hard time getting in blood for me. Animal blood works but I need about three times as much of it just to get the same satisfaction I get from human blood. When I get hungry I…I’m not myself, okay? I don’t have as much control over myself, I…I don’t see anything but red, basically. That’s why Mikey and my Dad don’t like me to be by myself because if I get hungry then I end up…well…I end up going for people, like I did yesterday, but in an uncontrolled way, and most of the time I end up taking too much so I have to give them some of mine in return, which is what I did yesterday with that girl.”

“What do you mean give them some of yours?” 

“My blood.” He explained, rolling up the sleeves to his shirt and holding out his arms for Frank to see, just like he’d done with Mikey that first day. Lining Gerard’s arms were tens of tiny puncture wounds and scars, from his own teeth presumably. “I cut or bite myself so that they can drink the blood; makes them stronger.” 

“So that’s what those are…” Frank absentmindedly reached out, stroking over the soft bumps of the scars with his fingertips. Gerard yanked his sleeves down at the sudden contact, shying away slightly. “Sorry.” Frank mumbled, though he thought it strange that he was the one apologising after all the shit that had gone down. 

“And it also explains why you cut your tongue on my teeth. I…when I get excited, my teeth extend, so…” 

“I got you excited, huh?” Frank couldn’t even hide the smugness from his voice, even at a time like this.

“Oh, fuck you.” Gerard retorted, but was grinning back. “I know this sounds crazy and I know you might not want to believe it but –“

“You’re right. I wouldn’t believe it. I wouldn’t believe it if it wasn’t for the fact that I’ve seen pretty much all the hard evidence supporting it.” Frank watched as Gerard looked down at his shoes, chewing on his lip nervously. “Hey…do you…do you wanna come over after school? So we can talk about it more? You can bring Mikey too so your Dad knows you're not alone or whatever.” 

“Yeah…yeah, I’d like that.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm feeling much better now, sorry for the delay, I know this chapter is really short so I'm gonna try and get the next one up later today as well, and hopefully that'll make up for the wait too, enjoy!


	8. Chapter Eight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this is the chapter that made me rate it mature, so...keep that in mind

“How did this even…happen?” Frank asked both of them. Gerard was sat cross-legged on the bed beside Frank while Mikey was sat in the desk chair, swiveling around bored and uninterested.

“We don’t know. It just…did. When I was younger, no matter how much food I ate, nothing seemed substantial for me. I got so hungry that I began to smell the blood beneath the skin and then…one day I couldn’t take it and I…I…I bit Mikey…” Gerard hung his head in shame whereas Mikey didn’t seem phased at all. “That’s when we knew, I guess.” Sensing that this was a sensitive topic for Gerard and a painful memory lane to go down, Frank changed the subject a little.

“So like…what do you eat, usually? Like, I know blood, but how do you get it?” Mikey narrowed his eyes at Gerard at this part, almost as if judging what he was going to say next.

“Usually we get blood from the butcher’s or something –“

“But that’s animal blood, right? You said –“

“Yeah, which is why we have to get a _lot_ of it.” Gerard cut him off quickly, taking a quick glance at Mikey, who seemed satisfied with Gerard’s answer, standing up from the chair and walking over to Gerard, holding out a hand.

“Smokes.” Mikey shrugged and Gerard just rolled his eyes, pulling a battered pack out from his left black combat boot, and a purple lighter from his tight jean pocket, handing them over. 

“Don’t chain smoke ‘em or you’re buying me two packs! And try not to get the smell clinging to your clothes, Dad gives you enough shit as it is!” Mikey just waved him away, taking the cigarettes and lighter and leaving the room. “Sorry, I think he just gets fed up of hearing about it.” How could anyone ever get fed up of vampirism? (He didn’t care what Gerard said; the guy was pretty much a vampire). “Dad made me his responsibility ever since he was old enough to understand what was wrong with me. He gets so much grief over it and I feel so awful. That’s why I try so hard not to run off but I just…I get so hungry and…I’m not myself when I am and it’s so _hard_ to _control_ , you know? Well, you don’t know but…” They sat in silence for a few moments, Frank not pushing Gerard to continue, even though he was impatient to know everything. “Dad works as a doctor in the hospital, so he has access to blood bags and stuff, so every now and then he’ll take one from the group where they have more than enough for their quota. Not often though. So I get hungry a lot…”

“Are you hungry _now?_ ” Frank asked carefully. Gerard just gave a non-committal shrug. “Then come to me.”

“What?” Gerard’s brows knitted in confusion and Frank began to elaborate.

“Whenever you’re hungry.” He clarified, Gerard’s eyes going wider than he ever thought possible. 

“ _What?!_ ” 

“Yeah. It’s not gonna do any damage if you just take a little bit frequently, right? And that way you wont lose control as much, right?” Frank was beginning to get into the idea himself. Being bitten by a real life vampire was definitely high up on his fantasy bucket list. 

“No, _no_ , that – that’s the stupidest idea I’ve ever heard. _No_.”

“Why not? I’ll just be like, when you want a snack or something, you know, to keep you going until you get your next ‘meal’ as it were.”

“No! Definitely not, no way, why would –“ Gerard cut himself off as the bedroom door opened again and Mikey appeared, tossing the pack of cigarettes and lighter onto the bed beside his brother.

“I’m going over to Pete’s.” Mikey sighed, shoving his hands in his pockets. “I’ll be back in an hour or so to get you and go home, okay? Be good.” He said that last bit sternly, and it reminded Frank of when he’d briefly met their Father. Gerard nodded, biting his lip and giving Mikey an apologetic look before he left the room. Frank waited until he heard the front door close behind Mikey before he turned to Gerard again, determinedly. 

“Please.”

“No! Do you not see how much of a bad idea this is? I may not be totally hungry but I could still get carried away! What if I can’t stop?” Frank groaned dramatically, rubbing a hand over his face. 

“You sound like such a cliché vampire movie right now.”

“ _Not_ a vampire!”

“Right, well, then stop sounding like one and fucking chomp down on me already!”

“Frank!” Gerard cried, horrified, and that was the first time that Frank had heard Gerard not use his pet name for him, and he knew that Gerard was really scared about this.

“Look,” he began, his tone softer than before, “I’ll tell you when to stop, alright? I’ll stop you, I’ll push you off me, I’ll even fucking punch you if I think you’re trying to drain me, just…is this not better than Mikey being forced to keep a close eye on you 24/7 to make sure you don’t stick your fangs in some poor kid’s neck and suck them dry?” Gerard started to furiously chew on his lip, clearly considering it. “Come on! Come on, come on, _come on_.” He began pleading. “Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, _come on, come on, come on, come_ –“ 

“Fine! Fine! Okay, fine, give me your wrist.” Gerard caved, holding his hand out for Frank’s arm.

“Great! Wait, what?”

“Your wrist. Roll up your sleeve.”

“What? My _wrist?_ What?”

“Yes.”

“But…why?”

“What? Did you not just spend that past 5 minutes desperately trying to convince me this was what you wanted?”

“Yeah but…don’t you usually go for the neck area?” Gerard retracted his hand and looked down at his lap, a light blush filling his cheeks.

“Um…yeah but…but only because that way, um, I can…I can restrain them better…uh…they can’t…they can’t pull away as easy…” Frank guessed he could understand that.

“Okay, well, can’t you do my neck anyway? I want the full vampire experience!”

“ _Not_ a _vampire!_ ” he protested but Frank just waved him away.

“So…how do you wanna do this? Do you want me to lie down or…?”

“Um, whatever’s…whatever’s most comfortable for you I guess…” Gerard mumbled awkwardly. Frank decided to sit with his back against the headboard of his bed; that way he could defend himself better if need be. 

Gerard climbed onto his knees, shuffling over to Frank, shifting forward so that he was straddling Frank’s thighs.

“Is this okay? It’s just easier this way, um, more comfortable.”

“Yeah, s’okay.” Gerard brushed Frank’s hair away from his neck, running his fingertips along his throat making it really hard for Frank not to shiver beneath the touch. Gerard leant forward as his fingertips travelled to the back of Frank’s neck, clutching lightly at the hair at the nape of it, his other hand gripping Frank’s shoulder. Frank held his breath as he felt the heat of Gerard’s against the skin of his throat.

“Okay, so I’m gonna…yeah.”

“Yeah.” Frank whispered, because he didn’t really know what else to do. Time seemed to stand still as all he felt was Gerard’s warm breath on his neck. It felt like an eternity before he actually did it.

Before he actually sunk his teeth into Frank’s flesh.

There was nothing glamourous about it. There were no endorphins or venom that made Frank feel high or blissed out. It was teeth in his neck, and it felt exactly how it sounded. It hurt. 

The initial penetration of skin hurt more than the actual sucking of the blood, then after that it just felt, well, uncomfortable. It was very similar to all those blood tests he’d had to have when he was younger.

But he had to admit it wasn’t _too_ bad. Gerard was sucking on his neck after all, and minus the sharp teeth, who wouldn’t want that? Gerard seemed to be enjoying it to say the least. 

Frank listened as a low moan erupted from Gerard’s throat after a few seconds, and anybody would be lying if they said that didn’t turn them on. Gerard seemed to be enjoying the whole ordeal a lot as he was involuntarily rolling his hips against Frank while trying to get his teeth buried deeper into Frank’s neck, moaning the entire time.

Obviously the sucking and grinding was only going to get one reaction from Frank, and because of the pain from the sharp teeth in his neck he was feeling a mixture of the two: pleasure and pain, and if he wasn’t careful he was going to start associating pain with pleasure and that wouldn’t be good for anyone.

When he felt his jeans begin to tent he figured enough was enough and that he should get Gerard to stop before the vampire boy noticed. He tapped Gerard on the shoulder to get his attention. 

“Gee –“ before he even managed to finish his polite way of telling Gerard to stop because he was getting ridiculously and weirdly turned on, Gerard pulled back, Frank hissing at the quick retraction. His lips were stained red with Frank’s blood and his pupils were blown. 

“Are you okay?” He asked, his voice raspy. “I didn’t take too much, did I?”

“Uh, no, no, sorry if I worried you or anything…” Frank crossed his legs, trying to hide the beginning of a boner that was forming, but the blood around Gerard’s mouth just reminded Frank of what he’d been doing (practically riding him while sucking out his blood) and it just turned him on again. “Do you feel better?” Gerard nodded shyly, licking his lips to try and remove the blood.

“Thanks.” He mumbled, his eyes still on Frank’s neck. “Um, just let me –“ Before Frank could register what was happening, Gerard was leaning forward again, his tongue licking a thin stripe along the wounds on Frank’s neck.

“…Oh…” the word left Frank’s mouth uncontrollably as he felt his dick twitch in his pants. Gerard clearly misunderstood the sound and shot back again, away from Frank, much to his dismay.

“Sorry, you just…I was just clotting the blood for you.”

“No, it’s fine, I wasn’t – I…it’s fine.” He finished lamely, because what else could he say? The truth would probably freak Gerard the hell out. _Oh yeah, I was just expressing how good it felt to have your tongue licking up the blood on my neck_. Because that wasn’t weird at all. 

“…Oh…” This time Gerard made the noise, and Frank followed his gaze downwards just to see why. Somehow he’d subconsciously uncrossed his legs putting his, now very noticeable, fully erect dick, pushing against the fabric of his jeans, on show. He immediately felt the blush fill his cheeks and he had no idea what to say, so he just continued to stare at Gerard who was staring at Frank’s boner. 

Mikey wasn’t going to be back for at least another 40 minutes, what was Frank supposed to do? He liked Gerard, he really did, and he sorta thought that Gerard liked him too; they had kissed after all, but this? This was a whole other situation right here.

“Dude, don’t stare if you're not planning on doing something about it.” Frank joked, trying to make light of the situation, and Gerard’s eyes instantly darted up to Frank’s, wide and excited. Frank wasn’t sure what compelled him to do what he did next, but before he could stop himself he was scrambling over the bed and into Gerard’s lap, straddling him in a way that let him get the friction he needed if he rolled his hips. He secured his arms around Gerard’s neck, pulling him closer. He lowered his head till his lips were inches from Gerard’s, feeling every muscle in Gerard’s body tense as he did so. “Please…” Frank whispered, unable to keep the desperation out of his voice. “Just let me…” he didn’t finish his sentence or wait for a response before he pressed his lips against Gerard’s. 

Gerard didn’t do anything at first, didn’t kiss back but just sat there, arms limp by his sides, mouth unmoving. Frank made a frustrated noise in the back of his throat, tightening his grip on Gerard until he felt hands holding him firmly by the hips, fingertips pressing in and pulling Frank closer. 

Frank moaned appreciatively when he felt Gerard begin to kiss him back, whimpering as he licked into Frank’s mouth. Frank managed to maneuver the two of them so that Gerard ended up sandwiched between the mattress and him, mouthing against Gerard’s jaw, running his hands up along Gerard’s chest and into his hair, fingertips scratching against his scalp slightly.

Gerard moaned, spurring him on as Frank rocked his hips down, getting the friction he needed and losing himself in the sensations. He removed his mouth from Gerard’s jaw, replacing it on his neck instead, biting down slightly (which was ironic seeing as that should be Gerard’s thing) before sucking, licking his tongue over to soothe the hopefully purpling bruise that would come through. 

Frank was so turned on right now that it was driving him insane, continuously grinding down on Gerard, zealously humping him into the mattress. Gerard seemed just as into it, his hands squeezing around Frank’s ass, pulling him down as he angled his hips just right, eliciting a choked gasp from both of them. 

“Fuck, Gee,” 

“Frankie, feels good, you feel so fucking good…” and of _course_ Gerard was a talker, Frank really shouldn’t have expected anything less. Frank shoved his hands up Gerard’s shirt, pressing his fingertips against his sternum and silencing Gerard’s rambling with his own mouth, insistently poking his tongue at Gerard’s. “That’s a dick move to get me to shut up, Frankie.” But he grinned anyway, Frank licking at the tiny teeth lining his mouth. “But it feels great so I’ll let it go.” And Frank rolled his eyes behind their lids before going back to persistently sucking on Gerard’s tongue.

Gerard’s hard on was prominent through his tight jeans, as was Frank’s, and the continuous rubbing was making sure that Frank wasn’t going to last long, his breath already hitching in pleasure. 

Gerard hooked his ankles around Frank’s calves, his thighs squeezing Frank’s hips, pulling him closer as he bucked up.

Frank’s mouth went slack against Gerard’s as he felt his orgasm begin to build in his lower abdomen, the fiery haired boy angling his hips just right until Frank had become a writhing mess on top of him. Sensing this, Gerard moved his hands to the curve of Frank’s ass, pulling him even closer and just making Frank lose it.

Frank’s lips were wet against Gerard’s collarbone when he came, his body shaking, Gerard holding him through it as he let his breath come back to him, still on his post – orgasm high. He could feel how hard Gerard was beneath him, how desperate he was, and wasted no time in teasing the red head.

He trailed his hand down Gerard’s stomach, scratching lightly at his belly as he went, unbuttoning his jeans and sliding his hand straight into the waistband of his underwear, gripping Gerard’s dick that was now slick with precome. 

Gerard began mewling under his grip, bucking up into Frank’s hand, making the most obscene noises. Frank continued to jack him sloppily, only needing to stroke two or three more times before Gerard came apart underneath him, squirming and twitching in Frank’s hold. He removed his hand from Gerard’s underwear, grinning as he brought it up to his face, licking Gerard’s come from his fingers.

Gerard wrinkled up his nose at this. 

“Dude, that’s gross.”

“Whatever you say, bloodsucker.” Frank smirked, continuing to clean the sticky substance off his fingers with his tongue. He sat up; grimacing slightly at the feel of his now sticky pants, knowing he was going to have to get out of them soon before it dried and his underwear began clinging to him uncomfortably. “So that was fun, we should totally do it again sometime.” Frank grinned lopsidedly, “But with less clothes next time.” 

“And maybe when the impending return of my brother isn’t a risk.”

“Well, that too, but if we’re prioritising then the clothes, really.” Gerard rolled his eyes but laughed all the same, leaning up on his elbows to stare at Frank. 

“Frankie? You…you like me, right?” Frank just stared at him, disbelievingly. 

“No, Gerard, I just decided to hump the fuck out of you because I needed to blow off steam and I have a fetish for sharp teeth.” He replied woodenly but then smiled when he saw that Gerard was scared that Frank was actually telling the truth. “Of course I like you, loser.” He reached his leg out, nudging Gerard in the knee with his foot playfully. 

“Oh, okay, well that’s good then because you know, I like you too, right? Well, of course you know that, I guess it’s pretty obvious now, and –“

“Has anyone ever told you, you talk a lot?” Gerard blushed furiously, looking down at his lap.

“Only when I’m around you or Mikey…” he admitted sheepishly.

“Really?” And Frank was actually really surprised by this; he couldn’t imagine Gerard actually shy and quiet. 

“Um, yeah, I mean, I don’t know, I just feel comfortable around you two, you know? Like, I could never really talk to anyone except Mikey, so I didn’t have any other friends and was homeschooled by our Dad for a while, among other reasons. When I saw you at the park that day, I don’t know, something just…felt right.”

“So…what? I’m the first person other than your brother that you’ve had a full conversation with?” 

“Well…yeah, I guess.” And Frank felt kind of honoured, and special. Out of everyone (and he was pretty sure Gerard could have his pick) he’d chosen Frank. He wasn’t going to lie, that felt pretty damn great. 

“Aw, Gee,” he grinned, sidling up beside Gerard, knocking their knees together affectionately. “I’m glad to be that person.” He smiled honestly, eyes bright.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so my second smut piece is out, to be fair it's not as explicit as my other work (you'll know if you've read that one), but I still get nervous posting it for some reason ^_^ Anyway, enjoy!
> 
> (also I know this seems like a cliche vampire fic right now but I promise you it isn't)


	9. Chapter Nine

For once in his life, Frank was actually excited to go into school the next morning. He never thought that he’d actually be looking forward to seeing the crazy redhead who couldn’t stop talking (and had a thing for human blood). At first Gerard had just annoyed him, but now he kind of depended on Gerard to make his days easier and more fun.

He barely waved a goodbye to his Mom before he jumped out of the car, running up to the school and practically bursting through the doors, grinning the entire time. Gerard was stood by his locker with Mikey, his back turned to Frank’s direction. Frank used this to his advantaged and ran up to Gerard, pouncing, wrapping his arms around Gerard’s neck and his legs around Gerard’s waist. Gerard stumbled a little, but Frank had to give it to him, he stayed standing. 

“Hey, Mikey.” Frank grinned from Gerard’s shoulder at the red head’s brother who just rolled his eyes, shutting his locker door but Frank could see the small quirk of his lips at the side. “Hey, Gee.” His smile grew even wider, if that was possible, as he bent his head to see Gerard’s face, his nose brushing against his cheek.

“Hey, Frankie.” Gerard grinned back, looking just as pleased to see Frank, as Frank was to see him. He flashed his teeth and Frank caught sight of his canines, which seemed a little pointier than your average human canine. Frank nuzzled into Gerard’s cheek, his mouth brushing by his ear.

“Nice teeth.” He whispered, alerting Gerard who snapped his mouth shut immediately, covering it with his hand just to make sure. “I got you that excited already, huh?” He couldn’t hide the smugness out of his voice, unable to wipe the smirk off his face even when Gerard elbowed him down from his back irritably. “Hey, I don’t mind, just thought you’d want to know.” 

“Thanks.” Gerard mumbled from behind his hand, closing his eyes, obviously trying to will his teeth retract and go away again. 

“You guys are gross.” Mikey wrinkled his nose up at the two of them, and Frank was about to ask if he knew but then remembered, yes, they were brothers, of course he knew, Gerard shared everything with Mikey. 

“Are they gone?” Gerard asked, smiling with teeth for Frank to check. Frank nodded, unable to get used to how his teeth could just go like that. “What’ve you got first? I’ve got math, which sucks not just because it’s math, because obviously math sucks anyway, but because I have to sit next to fucking Jordan who always mutters ‘fag’ under his breath because he knows how much it pisses me off, but he never gets caught out because he’s so far up the teacher’s ass, it’s ridiculous.” Frank couldn’t help but smile. At first he’d found Gerard’s constant talking annoying but now he felt it was endearing almost, especially now that he knew Gerard was only like this for certain people. “What?” Gerard questioned the smile on Frank’s face, and Frank just shook his head.

“Nothing,” he laughed lightly, pushing his bangs out of his eyes. “I’ve got English first and then math so I’ll see you at break, yeah?” Gerard nodded and Frank couldn’t help but reach up on his toes and plant a small kiss on his check; he didn’t care who saw, he was too happy. Gerard blushed a deep red before beaming at Frank when he pulled away, flashing teeth, pointy and all. Frank made a biting motion with his own teeth, raising brow to hint to Gerard that his canines were on show, before winking and turning to walk off down the corridor to his next lesson. 

*  
It turned out he didn’t get to see Gerard at break because he’d forgotten his math homework _again_ , and Mrs. Newman had decided that giving Frank a detention for it would make sure it didn’t happen again. Ha. So he’d had to wait until lunch to see Gee, which he was slightly annoyed about but was just thankful that Mrs. Newman hadn’t decided to keep him back for lunch as well after his ‘continuous talking back’ and ‘bad attitude’. 

Gerard was already sat down in the cafeteria at their usual table with Bob, Ray, Patrick and Mikey already there. Gerard had sat across from Mikey and clearly made sure that no one sat in the seat next to him, as there was an empty space and then Ray. Frank caught Gerard’s eye across the room and the red head immediately grinned, his eyes seeming to light up as he waved frantically at Frank. 

“Frankie! I saved you a seat!” and Frank had to roll his eyes because obviously he could see the empty seat that Gerard had clearly silently marked as ‘SIT HERE WHEN YOU’RE NOT FRANK AND I’LL KILL YOU’. 

Frank shook his head slightly as he made his way over, dropping down into the chair beside Gerard. 

“You didn’t show at break.” Gerard pouted slightly, cocking his head to the side. “Are you alright?” 

“Yeah, got kept back after math for my lack of homework. Were you okay?”

“Uh, yeah, Mikey was here so…I was good.” He nodded, looking down to his tray of food to mindlessly push it around. Come to think of it, Frank had never actually seen Gerard eat human food. Did he not need it? Clearly this was neither the time nor place to ask about such a thing, so he pushed the thought to the back of his mind for later. It was strange; Frank wasn’t sure how to act around Gerard in front of his friends. None of them knew what had gone on between the two of them, albeit it had happened rather quickly. He wanted to grab Gerard’s hand or give him a quick kiss but he wasn’t sure how the guys would react to that. “Frankie?” Frank hadn’t realised that he’d zoned out when Gerard had been trying to talk to him. 

“Sorry, what?”

“Are you sure you’re okay?” And Frank couldn’t help but smile at the genuine concern Gerard was expressing for him, his eyes glancing down at where his teeth had entered Frank’s neck yesterday. Frank didn’t care what his friends thought and reached over, grabbing Gerard’s hand and giving it a squeeze. Apparently that was all Gerard needed to confirm it was okay for him to lean over and press his lips to Frank’s, which he did. 

It startled Frank at first because obviously he hadn’t been expecting it, he and Gerard hadn’t actually talked about how they were going to act in public or what they were going to say to people if they asked, but Frank guessed that Gerard was all for just putting it out there. 

It was only a short kiss, almost chastely, but it was a kiss nonetheless, and a kiss from _Gerard_ , so it still caused Frank’s stomach to flip. Frank could feel everyone’s eyes on them when Gerard broke the kiss but he couldn’t care less. At this moment in time he couldn’t see anything past the bright smile Gerard was flashing Frank. 

“Um…so…are you two…like…a thing?” Ray asked and it took Frank a while to actually realise that there were other people in the room apart from him and Gerard. 

“Yeah, I guess you could say that.” Frank grinned, never taking his eyes off Gerard, and Gerard just grinned right back, big and happy. 

“Hey, you have really pointy teeth.” Bob pointed out from across the table and – holy shit – Frank hadn’t even noticed that Gerard was flashing his vampire teeth for everyone to see. Before anyone could take notice of what Bob had said and actually turn their sights to Gerard, Frank closed the distance between him and the red head once more, locking his lips onto Gerard’s so that no one could see his teeth. Gerard made a squeaking noise in the back of his throat, probably not expecting Frank to be so full on the middle of their school cafeteria. He deepened the kiss enough so that he heard the protests of his friends around the table, and once knowing that they would all be turning away in disgust, he pulled away from Gerard, whispering against his lips.

“Teeth.” Was all he said and Gerard snapped his mouth shut immediately, a deep blush filling his cheeks as he turned back to his untouched food. By the time his friends uncovered their eyes, they had all forgotten about Gerard’s teeth and were now insistent that the two of them kept their public displays of affection to a minimal. Mikey was especially for this. 

When his last lesson came to an end he caught Gerard by his locker, a happy smile on his face. 

“Hey, wanna come over to mine?” Frank asked, rocking forwards and backwards on the balls of his feet excitedly. Gerard’s eyes lit up at this as he slung his satchel over his shoulder. Before Gerard could give his answer, which Frank could easily predict was going to be a yes, Mikey appeared behind his brother, a stern look on his face. 

“No.” he said, his eyebrows knitted into a frown. Gerard pouted immediately, trying to pull the puppy dog eyes look to win Mikey over. “No.” He repeated firmly. “I’m barely passing math and I am not getting another detention for being late with my homework because I had to cover for you.” He looked over at Gerard, annoyed. “Sorry, but no.”

“But _please_ Mikey! Can’t you go to Pete’s or something?” Gerard begged, his eyes fucking huge, but Mikey must’ve become immune to Gerard’s vulnerable look after all these years because he wasn’t giving in. 

“No, Gee, I told you, I’ve got too much shit to do.” 

“Why don’t I come to yours?” Frank offered, seeing it as a simple solution, as long as their Dad was okay with it. Gerard’s face immediately lit up again at the mention of this, turning to Mikey, hopeful, one more time. 

“Yes! We can do that! Can we do that, Mikes? Dad won’t mind, will he?” Mikey chewed on his lip, looking between Frank and his brother uncertainly. 

“I don’t know, Gee…I mean…he flips out over anything and everything, you know that.”

“ _I know_ , but maybe he’ll like Frankie?” Mikey pursed his lips in a doubtful look but eventually just shrugged his shoulders.

“Fine. May as well give it a try.” 

*  
Frank had to admit, he was a little nervous on the way to Gerard and Mikey’s house. The last and only time he’d met their Dad; he hadn’t seemed to like Frank. Not even a little bit. Maybe that had just been because he had been worried about his son. Maybe this time he’d be friendlier knowing his vampire son (he didn’t care what Gerard said, Frank was calling him a vampire) wasn’t out on the streets draining someone dry. 

Even though he was nervous, he didn’t let himself show it. He was all over Gerard on the walk to his house, and not necessarily in the sexual sense. He just liked to touch, to feel. That’s just how Frank was. One moment he was draping his arms over Gerard’s shoulders, the next he was climbing on his back, and the best thing about it all was that Gerard seemed fine with it. In fact, he seemed to love it, grinning whenever Frank carded a hand through his red hair or pressed his chest to Gerard’s back. 

Frank knew that this habit of his could be annoying, fuck, Bob told him that enough, so for Gerard to actually seem to enjoy it made Frank feel wanted, really wanted.

They arrived at Gerard’s house sooner than Frank would have liked to be honest. He forced himself to remove his hands from whatever part of Gerard’s body they happened to be on at that moment in time and to step away from him a little, resisting the urge to touch. Gerard looked a little disappointed by the sudden loss of contact, but Frank wasn’t sure how their Dad would react to him touching his vampire son like that. Did Gerard’s Dad even know they were together? Did Gerard’s Dad even know Gerard was _gay?_ Maybe Frank should have asked about this on the walk to the house. 

Before he could try and squeeze in a quick question, Mikey had already opened the door and before Frank knew it he was entering the Way’s house. 

He wasn’t sure what to think of the place. Everything seemed so… _sterile_ , as if it was a hospital in itself. Frank didn’t want to touch anything in case he got germs all over it or something, hell, he wasn’t even sure if he should be stepping on their carpet. Should he take off his shoes? 

“You’re telling Dad.” Mikey said over his shoulder to Gerard, and Gerard’s shoulder’s slumped a little but he nodded all the same. Was their Dad really that strict about this sort of thing? He must be scary if even Gerard was worried about it, and Gerard had fangs for Christ’s sake.

“Dad?” Gerard called out, leading Frank towards what appeared to be a kitchen. 

“Gerard.” A low voice sounded, not at all very welcoming. “How was school?” 

“Uh, school was, er, school was okay…um…I’ve brought someone over…I hope...I hope that’s okay.” Gerard had his eyes glued to his feet the entire time and he looked almost as terrified as Frank felt. There was the sound of a chair scraping back against tiles and then heavy footsteps heading towards them. Soon enough, the man that Frank had only had the pleasure of meeting once before, (and he uses the word ‘pleasure’ very loosely here) was standing before them. 

“Ah, I remember you.” Mr. Way locked gazes with Frank, and Frank had to try extremely hard not to squirm. “Who are you, exactly?” Before Frank could figure out how to use his voice again, Gerard got there first.

“This is Frankie. A – a friend.” A friend. Right. No gayness. That was that cleared up then. 

“A friend.” Mr. Way repeated skeptically, as if he highly doubted the fact that Gerard could ever have a friend, and quite frankly, it pissed Frank off. 

“Yeah, Gee’s an awesome guy.” Frank piped up, feeling the need to defend him when even his own Father wasn’t. He noticed Gerard’s shoulders relax slightly at this but they tensed back up again as soon as Mr. Way continued talking.

“Gee?” What, did he have a problem with the nickname or something? Frank didn’t feel like he needed to respond to that, so he didn’t. “Well you know how I feel about you being around strangers, Gerard.”

“But he’s not a stranger, it’s Frankie!” 

“Gerard –“

“Dad. Frank’s cool.” Mikey’s voice sounded from behind them and Frank was feeling so uncomfortable right now that he just wanted the ground to swallow him up. If he felt like this then he couldn’t even imagine how Gerard felt. 

“Okay, well, we’re going to go to my room.” Gerard rushed out, grabbing Frank’s hand and yanking him out of the kitchen before his Dad could argue against it.  
Frank happily let Gerard drag him up the stairs and into the room at the far end of the hallway, shutting the door behind them both. “I’m sorry about my Dad, he’s just…he gets very protective and…yeah…I’m really sorry…” Frank was barely even listening to him, he was too busy staring at what he supposed was called Gerard’s bedroom. 

Frank had half been expecting a gurney in the room from what the rest of the house had looked like, but it was far from that, far from sterile definitely. Gerard’s room was a bombsite. 

The floor was scattered with clothes and pencils and sketchbooks; Frank wasn’t sure why Gerard needed a wardrobe or desk if most of his belongings were on the floor. It didn’t smell great either. In fact, it smelt pretty bad if Frank was being honest, like someone or something had died in there, not that Frank knew what a rotting corpse smelt like but he was guessing that this would be a pretty good comparison. 

But weirdly enough, Frank liked it. He liked how different it was to the rest of the house, he liked how _Gerard_ it was. 

“Frankie? Frankie? You okay?” Frank finally tore his eyes away from the wreckage to face Gerard.

“Uh, yeah, yeah I’m fine it’s just…you're _room_ , man!”

“Oh…I’m sorry…I didn’t really have a chance to…uh…clean up?”

“What? No! No, dude, I mean…it’s _awesome_.” 

“Er, really?”

“Yeah, it’s so…so... _you_.” Frank grinned at him, and Gerard grinned right back, possibly even wider. Gerard led him over to the bed, Frank managing to side step the piles of clothes and clutter without tripping, making his way towards the bed and collapsing onto it, lying back onto something…squishy? “What the fuck, Gee?” He grimaced, peeling a slice of pizza, from the pizza box he’d laid on, off his shirt. “I thought you drank blood not tomato sauce.” 

“It’s from when Mikey ordered pizza the other night. I forgot about it.” He shrugged as if it was nothing. Frank’s shirt was sticky with tomato sauce and it felt uncomfortable, so he peeled it off over his head, trying not to make fun of the blatant staring Gerard was doing. 

“Can I borrow a shirt or something?” 

“Uh…yeah sure…I…yeah.” He began rummaging around on the floor, picking up a shirt that looked like it would be small enough for Frank (because let’s face it, he was a small guy) before sniffing it and dropping it again. He repeated this process about four or five times before tossing a black t-shirt with a faded band logo on it to Frank. 

The shirt didn’t fit perfectly, it was still a little big, drooping off his shoulders, showing his collarbone, but apart from that it was fine. And it smelt like Gerard, which was an immediate plus. 

“You know,” Frank began, smirking “If you actually did your laundry more than once in a blue moon, you probably wouldn’t have to put your clothes through the smell test as much.” 

“I don’t have time for laundry.”

“Bullshit! You told me yourself you’re always reading comics to occupy yourself!”

“But that’s different! That’s actually _fun_.” Frank could only roll his eyes. 

“You’re such a fucking dork, you know that?”

“Yep!” he grinned happily. “Hey, you wanna see something cool?” 

“Always.” Gerard got down onto his stomach and began shimmying himself underneath the bed. “Uh, Gee? Not that I don’t love you room, it’s just…if it’s this messy on the outside I don’t really wanna know what’s under your bed.” 

“Shut up you clean freak, now do you wanna see something cool or not?” Frank sighed, getting down onto his knees and sliding under the bed, joining Gerard. “Can you see it?” It was rather dark under the bed and for some reason Frank thought that squinting was going to make it easier to see. 

“I don’t see anything.”

“You’re not _looking_.” He reached out and gripped Frank’s chin, turning his head towards the back wall, pointing at the skirting board. “See?” 

Frank _did_ see. Etched into the wood of the skirting board was a name. 

“Who’s Lainey?” 

“I don’t know, a girl that used to live here I guess.” Gerard had lowered his voice so that it was barely a whisper now. “But I just think that it’s so cool, I mean, we have no idea who this girl was, what she was into, what she was like. Somebody completely unknown to us lived in this room. I just think that’s really cool. It’s lame, I know.”

“No, it’s not lame, I get it. It’s like…she could have had all these secrets that no one ever knew about, I mean, she could have been a serial killer for all we know, you know?”

“Yes! Yes, that’s exactly it!” He turned to Frank, smiling brightly. “I haven’t shown anyone this before. Not even Mikey.” 

“How come?”

“Sometimes I just like to pretend that we’ve got a secret, me and Lainey. Something for myself that I don’t have to share with anyone else. It’s nice. Keeps me grounded.”

“Then…why did you share it with me?” Gerard shrugged, turning his head so that he was looking at the name again.

“I like you.” He stated simply. “Now it can be a secret between the three of us. I think that’d be pretty cool – if you’re okay with that I mean.” Smiling, Frank reached out, taking Gerard’s hand in his own. 

“Yeah, that’d be great, if Lainey’s okay with that though.”

“I bet she’d be fine with it.” Gerard gave his hand a squeeze and Frank was content just to stay under the bed with him for the rest of the day. Apparently Mr. Way had other plans for the two of them. 

“Gerard.” There was a loud knock at the door followed by the booming of the voice. “I think it’s time Frank went home now.” 

“But he’s not even been here ten minutes!” Gerard shouted back incredulously. 

“Gerard.” Mr. Way warned and Frank really didn’t want to get Gerard into any more trouble than he might already be in because of him.

“It’s okay, Gee.” Frank smiled softly, leaning in to press his lips to Gerard’s. “I’ll see you tomorrow, yeah? See if you can convince Mikey to let you come to mine?” Gerard nodded sadly before reluctantly letting go of Frank’s hand and sliding out from under the bed with him. “Tomorrow.” Frank promised, and then he was gone, leaving Gerard’s house.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so this is as far as the stuff I'd written in advance got, so updates may be delayed because I now I have to write it all from scratch, but I'll try my best at regular postings. Hope you enjoy it ^_^


	10. Chapter Ten

“Hold still!” Gerard scolded, chewing on his lip in concentration. 

“This is weird!” Frank protested but made no effort in moving away from his boyfriend. 

“It’s not _weird_ , it’s _art_.” Gerard sighed, agitatedly. “Quit squirming!” 

“I’m _trying!_ I feel like any second now your hand is gonna slip and I’m gonna lose an eye.”

“Mikey let me practice on him all the time and I never once poked his eye out…well…never _twice_ …”

“ _What?_ ” 

“It was only my third time doing it! But since then, 0 accidents.” Frank tried not to blink 100 times a second as Gerard continued to line the bottom of Frank’s eye with the eyeliner pencil he’d brought along with him. “If you look up it’ll probably be easier.” Frank did as he was told, looking up towards the ceiling instead, just waiting for the makeup session to be over. 

“What is this for again?”

“Art.” 

“Gerard. You can’t just do whatever you like to me using the excuse that it’s for art.” Gerard laughed, his crooked smile making Frank’s stomach flip excitedly. 

“But it is! When I’m done, I need to take photos –“

“You don’t even take photography!” 

“Let me _finish_. I need to take photos, which I can then _draw_ for my art piece. Usually we have to use real life stills or models or whatever, but I didn’t think you’d be very comfortable staying in the same position for so many hours. Plus, I’m pretty good at making 2D things appear 3D so it should be fine for me.” 

“What ‘art’ is this for, because it’s definitely not in our art class we have together, unless I’m completely forgetting some assignment we had.”

“It’s an extra class in the mornings. Mr. Bennet said that if I was really serious about going to art school then I should start creating a portfolio, so he’s been helping me out, giving me these mini assignments and stuff that I can include.” Why hadn’t Gerard told Frank about this before?

“And…you want to use me?”

“Sure, Frankie.” Gerard grinned happily, putting the lid on the eyeliner pencil and sitting back on his heels to admire his handiwork. “You’re beautiful.” Frank felt himself blush and had to look away. 

“If that’s true then why do you need to cover me in makeup?”

“I need you to look gloomy, sad. You’re face is too bright and cheerful naturally, and even though that’s one of the things I love about you, it’s just not what I’m going for with my paintings that I want to do.” Gerard reached over for his satchel, rooting around inside until he found what he’d been looking for, pulling out an old Polaroid camera. 

“A Polaroid?” 

“Yeah! They’re my favourite. When I was younger I used to think it was magic how the photos came out instantly.” Before Frank had time to even think about, Gerard had held up the camera and snapped a photo. 

“Hey! I wasn’t ready!” 

“That’s the point. You were expressionless when I took it, maybe a hint of confusion, which is just what I needed. We’re done!”

“Are you kidding me? An _hour_ of makeup for _one photo?_ What was the point?!”

“I told you already, I needed it for my assignment. Plus, I’ve always wondered what you’d look like in eyeliner.” Frank frowned; unimpressed with the answer he’d been given. “And I was right. You look pretty hot!” he trilled, turning around and falling back so that his back was against Frank’s chest, holding up the camera so that it was facing the both of them, snapping a shot. 

“At least let me be ready for one of them! And let me take off this damn makeup first!” 

“Don’t mess up all my hard work!” Gerard protested, tackling Frank to the ground, trying to prevent him from messing up the eye makeup while simultaneously capturing photos on his camera. 

Gerard continued to take photos until the camera had run out of photo paper and needed refilling again, and by that time the two of them were in a heap on top of each other, laughing, Frank’s eye makeup smudged all over his face. 

“I think I’ll use this one for my art.” Gerard picked up a photo from the floor, holding it up for both of them to see. It must have been the first one Gerard had taken, as it was Frank by himself, makeup in tact, staring straight down the camera, wide-eyed and blank. “And the rest will be for my wall.” Gerard grinned, leaning his head on Franks shoulder. Frank picked one of the stray photos up from the floor, staring at it intently. 

Gerard had managed to capture the moment when he had fallen on top of Frank, his eyes crinkled with laughter, his tiny teeth on show in his grin while Frank’s face was screwed up, one hand having smeared eyeliner down his cheek, the other tangled in Gerard’s shirt. He loved it. 

“Hey, Gee? Can I keep this one?” Gerard looked over at the photo Frank was holding up, and he sighed happily. 

“Yeah. You’re cute in that one, Frankie.”

“You’re pretty cute yourself.” He smiled back, reaching over to place the photo on his bedside drawer. “Hey, when was the last time you ate?” Gerard shifted uneasily, removing his head from Frank’s shoulder. 

“Frankie…”

“Tell me.” Gerard bit his lip, frowning down into his lap.

“2 days ago, maybe 3, I’m not sure.”

“Gerard. I told you to come to me in between, that way there’s less risk of you, well, you know…getting into trouble.” Gerard swiveled up onto his knees to face Frank, his hands clasped in his lap, his head bowed down. 

“I know, and I’m really sorry Frankie, it’s just…it doesn’t feel right…”

“I told you I was fine with it.” 

“I know, I know you’re fine with it but _I’m_ not. I don’t…I don’t have to…I don’t have to want to depend on you all this time with this problem, you know? I don’t want to be a burden to you.”

“You’re not! Gerard, I _want_ to do this. I wouldn’t have offered if I didn’t. It makes me feel better knowing that you won’t be completely suffering if you do, so please. 3 days is a long time without feeding.” Frank was already yanking the collar of his school shirt down so that Gerard could get access to his neck. 

“If…if you’re sure.”

“Of course I am.”

“And make sure to stop me if I take too much!”

“You won’t take too much.” Frank assured him, leaning back against the wall as Gerard made the move to straddle Frank’s lap, getting better access to his now exposed neck. “It’ll be fine.”

“Thank you, Frankie.” And not even a few seconds passed before he sank his teeth into Frank’s neck.

*  
Gerard didn’t come into school the next day. Nor did he make an appearance for the rest of the week or the week after that as well. Frank had sent the maximum amount of texts that didn’t make him appear clingy and obsessive. He was starting to worry. He hadn’t seen Mikey around either. 

He decided to ask Pete if he knew anything about it since he knew he’d been spending a lot of time with Mikey recently. He caught Pete on the way to fourth period, stopping him in the hallway by the lockers. 

“Hey, Pete!”

“What’s up?”

“Have you heard from Mikey recently?”

“Huh? No, I haven’t actually…I haven’t heard from him since last week actually.” 

“Aren’t you worried?”

“Not really.”

“What? But you’re with him all the time!”

“And? You know, he’s probably just sick or something. Hey, what exactly do you think Mikey is to me anyway?” Pete laughed, raising a questioning brow at Frank. 

“I…you…but you’re together all the time…I mean, you’re all over him, Pete.”

“That’s just what I do! I flirt, I joke, but we’re not a thing. Jesus, Frank, I did the same thing to you before you got all occupied with Gerard.” Actually, now that Frank came to think about it, Pete was right. The two of them used to spend all their time together before Gerard came along. 

“So you and Mikey aren’t…?”

“No! I’m pretty sure Ray likes him anyway.”

“ _Ray?_ ” Wow, Frank didn’t even know that the guy swung that way.

“Listen, I gotta go, if I get another late in math then I get a detention, and I try to avoid them at all costs. Talk later, okay?” Frank nodded, letting Pete continue to his next lesson while he pondered over what he’d been told. If Mikey was ill then maybe Gerard was sick too. But if Gerard were sick then he would have at least told Frank about it. _Something wasn’t right_. 

Frank decided to skip his last two lessons and head over to Gerard and Mikey’s house. It had been over two weeks since he’d seen Gerard and he hadn’t heard anything from him or Mikey. Something wasn’t right. 

It wasn’t hard to just leave the school. He’d get marked as absent in the lessons he missed and, if the teachers cared enough, a phone call home, but he didn’t care about that. He tried not to hurry over to the brothers’ house but it was all he could do to just not break out into a run. 

By the time he reached the house he saw that it was completely dark. The curtains were drawn to and there was no sight of any light inside either. It was as if the house had been abandoned. Regardless, Frank knocked loudly on the door anyway. Someone had to be in. Gerard wouldn’t have left without telling Frank first. No one came to the door but Frank wasn’t giving up that easily. He doubted there would be a spare key left so carelessly, especially if they had something to hide right now. Frank knelt down on his knees, lifting up the flap to the letterbox, trying to peek inside. It was pretty dark so he couldn’t see much. 

“Hello?” he shouted into the seemingly empty house. “Gerard? I know you’re in there, come on!” He got no reply but he heard some shuffling sounding from inside. Gerard was definitely in there. He let the lid on the letterbox slam shut and sat back on his heels, stumped for what he should do next. There wasn’t anyway he could get into the house without breaking in and that was his last resort. He decided to head around to the back, seeing if there was a way inside that way. 

There was a back door, which seemed a little less sturdy than the front door and more likely to be unlocked, however, when he tried opening it, it still didn’t budge. He was about to give up and wait a few more days until he heard a groaning from inside, something that sounded like a groan of discomfort.

“Gerard? Is that you? Answer me, Gee, are you okay?” he didn’t get a reply but he did get another moan of pain in response. Whoever was in there needed help. He couldn’t exactly break down the door without the neighbours noticing and just assuming he was some teen delinquent, however, seeing as this lock didn’t look as sturdy as the lock on the front door, Frank could try picking it. He’d done it once or twice before with simple locks like if he forgot the code to his locker or if when his Mom used to lock his guitar away in the garage if he ever pissed her off.

He removed the paperclips holding together his English work and began bending them into a straight rod. When Frank had first seen it done in the movies, he thought that it was ridiculous that a thing as tiny as a paperclip could pick a lock, and most of the time, they couldn’t. They only really worked with specific types of locks, luckily, a type that Gerard’s back door had.

It only took about 15 minutes for Frank to unpick the lock, which was really good timing for him. The door swung open quietly and inside just appeared as dark as it had seemed. Frank stepped in, closing the door behind him and dropping his bag at his feet. 

“Gerard? Gerard, are you okay?” there was a groan again, sounding from upstairs. Frank didn’t waste any time in running up to where he remembered Gerard’s room was, only slowing down as he reached the door. He pushed it open gingerly, peeking his head around but not seeing anything. “Gee? You in there? G –“

Before Frank could even notice him, Gerard jumped on Frank, knocking the both of them to the floor together. The first thing Frank felt was relief, relief that Gerard really was okay. But then he realised he was wrong. Gerard wasn’t okay. Not at all. 

“Gee?” Gerard wasn’t doing anything other than clinging on tightly to Frank, his body trembling immensely. “Gerard, what happened? What’s wrong?” Frank tried to sit up, pushing the scared red head up with him but Gerard wasn’t having any of it and just tightened his grip around Frank. “Gerard?”

“I’m hungry.” He croaked out, his voice hoarse, barely a whisper. “I’m so hungry, Frankie,” he whimpered, sounding in deep pain. 

“How long has it been?”

“Since I last took from you…” _Shit!_ That was almost _2 weeks ago_. Gerard hadn’t fed for 2 weeks? _Shit._

“Gerard, where do you keep it? Your stash of blood, where is it?”

“There isn’t anything…”

“What? What do you mean there isn’t any, I thought your Dad –“

“He found out, Frankie.” Gerard sobbed into Frank’s shoulder. “He found out I was taking from you. He was so angry, Frankie…he was so angry…”

“Okay, but Gerard, where’s all the blood for you? You said your Dad kept animal blood or something for you, where is it?”

“You don’t understand, Frankie.” Gerard shook his head feebly; his grip around Frank tightening just that little bit more. “He was so angry…he…I tried to explain but he just kept saying…he wouldn’t listen…Frankie…and then…he got rid of it all. The blood. It’s all gone, Frankie…he said I wouldn’t need it if I had you, that I should just go around draining any human I like, but I’m not like that, Frankie, I swear!” And Frank hugged Gerard back just as tightly.

“I know. I know you’re not, Gee.” Frank assured him softly. 

“He left. He took Mikey and he left…” Frank felt angry, angry for Gerard having been treated so badly, but he couldn’t do anything about that right now, all he could do was try to help. 

“Listen Gee, we need to get you some food, do you have any idea where your Dad gets the blood from?” Frank would have offered his own to Gerard but with how hungry Gerard was at this moment in time even Frank knew that would be a stupid idea. 

“I – I don’t know…he got the human blood from the hospital he worked at…and…he got the animal blood from the butchers I think…I’m sorry…I don’t know!” 

“Hey, it’s alright.” Frank lightly ran his fingers through Gerard’s hair, trying to calm him down while he thought of a solution to the situation. Frank wasn’t able to go to the hospital and get human blood, so animal blood seemed to be his only other option. But Gerard hadn’t eaten for almost 2 weeks meaning he’d need probably 10 bags of human blood to satisfy his thirst right now, and because he needed 3 times as much animal blood as human blood that meant Frank would have to get a hold of 30 bags of animal blood. He doubted the butcher would have 30 bags of animal blood to hand and even if they did, Frank couldn’t exactly go in asking for 30 bags of blood without raising a few eyebrows…plus, Frank was a vegetarian for crying out loud! 

Getting 30 bags of animal blood was out of the question, as was getting any bags of human blood, and Frank was so not dragging in a stranger off the street for Gerard to drain dry, and he doubted Gerard would be into that either. There was only one option left…the stupid one. 

“Gerard…you’re…you need to take from me…”

“What? Frankie, no –“

“There isn’t another option. I’ll stop you when you take too much, okay, we just need to get _something_ inside of you, to keep you going.”

“I _can’t_ …” Frank wasn’t even listening to Gerard’s feeble protests. He stretched out his neck and guided Gerard’s mouth to where it joined his shoulder, Gerard too weak to pull away. “No…Frankie…” 

“Come on, Gee…” Frank tightened his grip on the back of Gerard’s head until his mouth came up against Frank’s throat. 

It shocked Frank a little when Gerard sank his teeth into his flesh so quickly, so violently, pushing Frank backwards onto his back, his knees trapping Frank’s hips like a vice. Frank winced slightly as Gerard’s fingertips squeezed his shoulders painfully, hungrily feeding from Frank. 

When Frank began to feel dizzy, his vision blurring slightly, he realised it was time for Gerard to stop. He tapped Gerard on the shoulder, trying to get his attention, but Gerard didn’t seem to notice. 

“Gee…enough…you need to stop…” but Gerard didn’t stop. He was too far gone to stop now and Frank was becoming too weak to push Gerard off of him. “Gee! I need…I need you to…stop!” Gerard still took no notice of Frank’s pleas and soon enough Frank’s vision went black as he lost consciousness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so next chapter is up! hope you enjoy it guys :)


	11. Chapter Eleven

When Frank awoke he felt drowsy and weak and just wanted to fall right back to sleep again. He groaned, forcing open his eyes before he tried to remember what had happened. The first thing he noticed was that he wasn’t in his room, or even his house. The room was cluttered, so much so that you could barely see the floor. He was in Gerard’s room. On Gerard’s bed. That’s right. He remembered now. Gerard had been feeding from him and…then what? Frank didn’t remember anything else that happened after that. He made himself sit up, ignoring the heaviness of his limbs that wanted to weigh him down, and looked about the room. He couldn’t see Gerard. He swung his legs out the side of the bed and got up on his feet before falling down to his knees with a bang, his body too weak to even let him stand. 

He groaned, closing his eyes and giving his head a moment to stop spinning. 

“…Frankie?” Frank looked up, relieved to see that Gerard was back and appearing a lot better than before. 

“Hey Gee…” but it came out a little slurred. “What…what happened?” He let Gerard walk over to him and pull him up into a sitting position his back resting against the side of the bed. He felt the cool of glass press into his palm and looked down to find Gerard handing him a glass of water. He took a sip of it before letting Gerard take it from him again. 

“I’m so sorry, Frankie.” Gerard whispered, his head hung low. “I didn’t mean to…I just…I’m really, really sorry, please forgive me, I –“ 

“Wait, Gee, what are you talking about? What happened, I don’t…I don’t remember…” Gerard looked up at Frank from under his lashes before darting his eyes back down to the floor again. 

“I didn’t mean to, Frankie, I just…it wasn’t me, I couldn’t stop and I’m so sorry I…I took too much…” Oh… _oh_ , Frank vaguely remembered now. Remembered how he’d had no other option but to offer his blood to Gerard and how Gerard had had no other option but to accept. 

“It’s okay, I’m not mad, you couldn’t help it.” Frank gave a weak smile, still feeling pretty exhausted. 

“But –“

“Gerard, please,” Frank interrupted, guiding Gerard’s head to rest on his shoulder. “I’m too tired to argue with you about this, just…please…” he sighed, closing his eyes in fatigue. 

“Okay…okay, Frankie, m’sorry.” Frank pressed his lips to the top of Gerard’s head before resting his cheek on top of it.

He’d been so exhausted of energy that he’d quickly fallen asleep again. He woke up in the same position he’d nodded off, his head resting on top of Gerard’s. It seemed that Gerard had ended up dozing off too. Frank lifted his head, his neck aching in protest a little, and went to stretch out his limbs, but as soon as he tried to move his arm, Gerard’s own snaked around his waist, gripping on tighter. 

“Hey, Gee, wake up.” Frank nudged him gently while simultaneously rubbing the sleep out of his own eyes.

“Mmm…Frankie?”

“Come on Gee, it’s dark out.” Frank noticed the extreme lack of light coming in from the windows and looked over to the alarm clock on Gerard’s drawers that read 19:05. Shit, his Mom was probably worried sick. Gerard sat up, yawning softly, running his fingers through his sleep-messed hair. “Get some clothes together or something, okay?” 

“…Huh…what?” Gerard was still half asleep, one eye not even open. 

“Some stuff, for mine. You can’t stay here.”

“But…what about your Mom?”

“She’ll be fine with it, don’t worry.” When Gerard still looked uncertain, Frank pulled himself up off the floor, standing to look down at Gerard sternly. “Look, I’m not just going to leave you by yourself, so you can either come with me of your own accord or I can tie you up and drag you there myself.” Gerard cracked a smile at this, standing up beside Frank. 

“It’s cute that you think you can overpower me to do that, Frankie.” Gerard teased, nudging Frank playfully with his shoulder. “You’re just lucky I don’t have a major kink for that sort of thing.” He winked and Frank just rolled his eyes before grinning, taking Gerard’s hand in his own.

*  
Gerard squeezed Frank’s hand a little tighter as they reached his house, and Frank just smiled reassuringly before opening the front door. 

“Hi, Mom!” Frank shouted down the hall. “Sorry I’m late –“

“Frank Iero! Where on earth have you been? I’ve been worried –“ his Mom stopped short when she saw that Frank wasn’t alone. 

“Mom, this is Gerard.” Gerard gave a small wave and a timid smile. “Um, is it okay if he stays with us for a while?” Frank gave his Mom a look that he knew would allow her to understand the situation completely, which she did.

“Oh, yes, of course, um, do you want to set up the guest room or –“ she cast her eyes downward to Gerard and Frank’s still clasped hands, giving a little smile to herself before continuing. “Never mind.” And Frank could see she was trying hard to suppress a grin and he just rolled his eyes. “Gerard, honey, if you need anything don’t hesitate to ask, okay?” 

“Thank you, Miss Iero.” 

“Just call me Linda! Do you want me to put tea on for you boys?”

“Uh, that’s alright Mom, we’ll probably grab something in a little while.” 

“Okay then, just shout if you need anything.” 

Frank lead Gerard up to his room, placing his bag down for him at the foot of his bed. 

“Your Mom’s really nice.”

“Yeah, she’s pretty cool.” Frank agreed, because he wasn’t going to lie, his Mom was awesome. “Um, you don’t eat, do you?”

“No, I mean I _can_ but it doesn’t fill me up and it doesn’t taste that good either, in fact I cant ever remember eating food that tastes good, which kinda sucks because I always thought I’d love ice cream.” 

The evening passed fairly quickly. Frank was still feeling weak from when Gerard had taken too much so he was tired already, and after everything Gerard had been through he was ready to sleep for about a week. Frank heated up some of last night’s veggie lasagna and ate it upstairs, keeping Gerard company who was pretty content to just rifle through all of Frank’s belongings. By the time it reached 10:30pm, both of them were already yawning three times every minute. 

Frank had pulled out an airbed for Gerard to sleep on, which ending proving to be pointless as Gerard pretended he didn’t even notice it and hopped into bed beside Frank. Frank didn’t really mind though. 

“Frankie?” Gerard whispered after a few minutes of silence. Frank turned around to face him, his eyes already half lidded with sleep. “I don’t know where Mikey is…” 

“I know.” Frank whispered back, reaching out to find Gerard’s hand underneath the covers. “But we’ll find him. He may even be back at the house by tomorrow.” 

*  
When Frank awoke in the morning, Gerard was no longer beside him. He stretched out his limbs, groaning as he did so; sighing in relief that this wasn’t a morning he was sporting a glory. 

“Gerard?” he yawned, blinking his eyes several times before having a look around his room. He wasn’t in here. “Gerard?” He sat up, confused, running a hand through his messy hair. Gerard’s bag was still in the corner of Frank’s room so he still had to be here. Maybe he’d just gone to the bathroom. Frank sat there for a couple more minutes before swinging his legs over the side of the bed and standing up, stumbling over to his window to open his curtains. 

He drew the curtains back and rested his elbows on the sill, just staring out the window. He wasn’t sure what time it was but it must’ve been late as it was already quite bright out. He was supposed to be at school today but he supposed after bringing Gerard home his Mom didn’t mind if they had one day off or so. He scanned his eyes along the mess that was their garden. When his Dad still lived with them, sometimes they’d looked after his sister’s dog when she and her boyfriend went on weekend trips. It had been a great big German Shepard named Johnny, and Frank had loved it. But unfortunately for their garden, Johnny had loved digging holes more than he’d loved to play with Frank. Due to that, their garden became demolished so they had stopped bothering to mow the lawns or do any type of weeding or tidying to it. It looked like a jungle. 

Frank began sighing at the mess his garden was when he saw a hunched figure at the edge of the garden near one of the bushes. Frank leaned closer, pressing his nose against the glass until he realised that it was Gerard out there. What was he doing? Frank was about the knock on the glass before opening a window and shouting down to his weird boyfriend to ask him what on earth when he was doing, when he looked a little closer to see Gerard’s shoulders moving up and down ferociously, his head shaking every now and again. 

_Fuck._

Gerard was _feeding_. 

Frank bolted from his room, running as fast as he could down the stairs without falling over and breaking his neck, skidding to a halt when he entered the kitchen to get to the back door, finding his Mom sat at the table with a cup of tea. 

“Mom! What are – what are you – uh – I thought you’d be at work, er, by now?” 

“I got the morning off, I wanted to check that you boys were okay.” His Mom replied, draining the last of the dregs from her cup. “Is Gerard still asleep?” 

“Uh yeah, yeah,” Frank lied, edging closer towards the back door. “I’m…I’m just gonna step outside for a minute or two…” 

“What? Neither of us have stepped out into the garden for years!” She laughed incredulously.

“I, er, I dropped something out of the window by accident. Need to get it.” 

“…Well okay, but be careful!”

“It’s a garden, Mom, not Jurassic Park.” 

“I worry.” She laughed, standing up to place her empty mug in the sink before heading out the kitchen. “I’m gonna get ready for work.” 

“Okay.” Frank wasn’t even listening by now; he dug out the keys to the backdoor from the drawer and jammed it in the lock, shoving open the door and running over towards where he’d seen Gerard. “Gerard!” he all but yelled, running over to where he was still hunched over, feeding on something. He grabbed Gerard’s shoulder and yanked back, Gerard turning to Frank with a growl, his eyes dark, his mouth covered in blood. 

In Gerard’s hands were the remains of a mangled rabbit, its stomach ripped open, the contents all over the ground and Gerard. Frank was scared; he wasn’t going to pretend he wasn’t. It looked like a scene out of B horror movie.

“Ge – Gerard?” Frank didn’t like to admit it, but there were even tears in eyes right now. It was saddening to see his boyfriend acting so…feral. It didn’t even seem like Gerard was there. His eyes were dark and glazed, almost empty, like black glass. His teeth were bared and dripping blood mixed with remains of the poor creature’s entrails. Frank didn’t know what to do. “Gee? I…you…” Frank dropped to his knees, hanging his head, his jaw clenched to try and give him some form of control over his emotions. 

“Frankie?” Frank lifted his head at the affectionate sound of his boyfriend’s voice. Gerard’s eyes were back to normal, the innocent tone to them in the green hue. “I –“ he looked down into his lap where he’d dropped the animal’s corpse. “Oh, god, I didn’t – I wasn’t – Frankie I’m so sorry!” Gerard cried, tears brimming at the rims of his eyes, his lower lip quivering. “I wasn’t thinking! I don’t even remember coming out here – I’m so sorry! Sorry!” Gerard was hysterical now, stroking the bloodied carcass, tears streaming down his face. 

Frank shuffled over to Gerard, grabbing his shoulders and pulling him into his chest, embracing him tightly. 

“I’m so sorry Frankie! I – I didn’t mean it!” his voice was shaking along with his bloodstained hands. Frank stroked his hair reassuringly, letting him know everything was okay. 

“It’s okay, it’s alright.” He hummed gently. “It’s alright.” Gerard’s crying seemed to be uncontrollable no matter how much Frank tried to soothe him. “Come on, let’s get you cleaned up, okay?” He stood up, picking Gerard up off the floor with him, having to practically drag him back into the house. He opened the back door slowly and listened out for his Mom, trying to console Gerard at the same time. The familiar sound of the shower running gave Frank a little relief, and he quickly hurried Gerard upstairs and into his room, shutting the door and praying Gerard’s sobs would get lost in the sound of the running water. 

“Gerard, you need to calm down, okay? Please? It’s alright, I’m not mad, okay?” Gerard nodded, gulping in air to try and control his breathing, but that just ended up in him choking, causing the tears to fall even faster. He continued to try and console Gerard for a further 10 minutes until he heard his Mom shout a quick bye to them, pulling Gerard into the bathroom. “Let’s get you cleaned up, alright?” 

Frank pulled out one of his Mom’s old flannels that he knew she wouldn’t notice going missing when he had to throw it away after cleaning Gerard. He soaked the flannel in water, wringing it out before wiping the blood off Gerard’s chin and cheeks, grimacing slightly when small chunks of dead animal fell into the sink with a slight “plop”. Every time he looked at Gerard to check where else needed cleaning, he noticed that his eyes were distant, as if he wasn’t really there, as if his mind was somewhere else from his body. Frank quickly finished cleaning him up, running his hands under the tap, before guiding Gerard back to his bedroom, deciding to get rid of the bloody evidence in the bathroom later. 

He helped Gerard climb into his bed before climbing in beside him, gently moving his head to rest on Frank’s chest. Gerard’s hiccup sobs had quieted down to an occasional sniffle, which eventually calmed to a light snore when he fell asleep in Frank’s arms, his eyes puffy and red. 

Frank wasn’t sure what to do. He didn’t know where he could get blood for Gerard, and he couldn’t keep donating his own, but he couldn’t risk Gerard losing control like he did today. Next time it might not just be a small garden creature. Frank didn’t want to think what it could be next time. Frank didn’t _want_ there to be a next time at all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so I finished this chapter at like 2am this morning and as I was editing I fell asleep because I suck at staying up late now for some reason, so sorry for the delay, hope you enjoy!


	12. Chapter Twelve

Frank wasn’t sure how much time had passed when he heard his doorbell ring. Gerard was still asleep, his chest gently rising and falling with each small breath he took. It was the gentle rising and falling of his chest that reminded Frank that Gerard was mortal. Gerard was vulnerable and could get hurt, just like anybody else. He wasn’t a monster. He was a _human being_ , albeit a strange one. When the doorbell rang a third time Frank realised whoever was at the door was not leaving any time soon, and began to slowly shimmy out from beneath Gerard, making sure not to wake him. He gave himself a quick once over, seeing there was blood on his t-shirt, quickly changing into a black top crumpled up on the floor, running a hand through his messy bangs, before begrudgingly making his way downstairs. 

He wasn’t sure who to expect at the door. Maybe the mailman, maybe one of his friends, but neither of those possibilities would have been so persistent in ringing the doorbell. No, he wasn’t sure who to expect, but Mikey Way was definitely a surprise. 

“We need to talk.” Mikey stated sternly. 

*  
“We need to talk.” Mikey looked haggard, as if he’d crawled through two apocalypses just to get here. His hair was a mess, sticking out at all ends like someone had taken a chainsaw to it; his face was pale, paler than pale, but maybe it just seemed that way because of how dark the circles under his eyes looked. His clothes were messy and clearly hadn’t been washed because Frank could smell them from where he was stood. The only thing that seemed to have survived on Mikey were his damn glasses. “We need to –“

“Yeah, yeah, I heard you first time, where the fuck have you been?” Frank questioned him, grabbing Mikey’s arm and tugging him towards the inside. “Gerard’s been worried sick, I’ve –“

“Wait. Gerard’s here?” Mikey pulled out of Frank’s grip, stepping away from the door cautiously. 

“Well yeah, where else was he supposed to go? Mikey, what’s going on?” 

“Look, you can’t tell him I was here, alright?”

“What? What – what are you talking about?” Frank was beyond confused right now. After everything Gerard had been through why wasn’t he allowed to see his brother who he thought was missing? “He’s your _brother_ , Mikey, he’s thinks you're missing, he thinks you're in _trouble_. Like hell I’m not telling him you're here –“ Mikey grabbed onto Frank’s shirt, pulling him outside with him and shutting the door behind them. “Mikey, what the f–“

“What has he told you?” Mikey hissed, narrowing his eyes that were looking down at Frank through his glasses. 

“He told me what had happened at the house, you know…with your Dad freaking out and taking you away. He just left Gerard there, by himself, hungry and alone. What is wrong with him? That’s his son! Not to mention how it’d be dangerous for everyone else if Gerard went outside _starving_.” 

“It’s dangerous for _you_ , Frank.” Mikey laughed, but it wasn’t genuine. He wiped a hand over his face, knocking his glasses to the side, before taking a deep breath, not lowering his shoulders as he exhaled. “That’s not what happened.” Before Frank could question what the hell was even going on right now, Mikey’s eyes widened at catching sight of something, grabbing Frank’s head and yanking it to the side while simultaneously yanking the collar of his shirt downwards. Frank quickly shoved the Way brother off of him, readjusting his shirt while casting glares Mikey’s way. 

“What the hell is wrong with you?!”

“It was you!” 

“What was me?” Frank had no idea what was happening right now and was even beginning to question his own sanity of what was real or not. 

“You let him feed from you, didn’t you?” Frank was taken aback by the sudden interrogation from his boyfriend’s brother. He shouldn’t have to answer that, right? It had been a personal exchange between him and Gerard, not something you’d happily share with one of the exchange participant’s brother. 

“I – I don’t know what you're talking about.” He lied, very badly too. He wasn’t expecting such a question, and it caught him off guard. 

“Bullshit! He’s _not supposed to drink human blood_.” Now that took Frank by surprise, more than anything else that had happened these last few days. It took him by surprise because that would mean that Gerard had _lied_ to him. 

“What – what – no, that – that can’t be right, Gerard told me, he _told me_ –“ 

“Yeah, Gerard says a lot of things to get what he wants.” Mikey sighed, clearly exasperated by the whole situation, which Frank was starting to understand more and more, little by little. “He’s not supposed to drink human blood. I don’t know what he’s told you, but the reason we’re so protective of him is to stop him from drinking human blood _at all_. It…it changes him, makes him…different from who he really is.” Frank was struggling to comprehend it all so clearly, everything had just become a hundred times more complicated than he first thought. 

“Mikey…what really happened, that night, before I found Gerard alone in your house?” Frank was scared to ask; scared to hear the truth, but he needed it. If it meant he could somehow have a better chance at helping Gerard, then he’d do it. 

Mikey sat down on the front step of Frank’s house, head in hands, his shoulders beginning to shake slightly, his distressed emotions crumbling his usually nonchalant demeanor. 

“He…he…he attacked him…” Frank didn’t say anything. Frank _couldn’t_ say anything. He simply slumped down onto the step beside Mikey, taking a deep breath to prepare himself to hear the rest. “When we got home after I picked him up from here, he was weird. He was weird on the way home too but I just thought it was because he was happy from seeing you. He really likes you, more than anyone, that’s why I thought…that’s why I didn’t think he’d do this to you. I was stupid.” Mikey finally lifted his head, Frank noticing how his eyes were red from the tears he’d been attempting to hold back. “He came home, and Dad knew immediately he’d fed from someone. Maybe if I’d…I’d paid more attention, I would’ve noticed and been able to…I don’t know…do _something_. I don’t know exactly what happened, I was sent to my room, told to stay in there. I heard a lot of shouting, and when I heard silence, a _long_ silence, I went downstairs…and that’s when I saw…” Mikey’s speech became shaky, his hands moving to his knees where his knuckles turned white due to his grip on them. “Dad must have threatened to move him away again, and with the state the human blood had put him in, Gerard must’ve just lost it. There was blood, so much _blood_. Gerard wasn’t even _there_. I mean, he was _there_ , his body was there but it was as if the real Gerard had left…disappeared.”

Frank knew what he meant. It made him think back to this morning, when he’d seen Gerard feeding outside and when he looked in his eyes it was as if he was somewhere else completely. 

“When I managed to get Gerard’s attention he completely broke down, was inconsolable, rambling about how he didn’t mean it, he didn’t know what had happened. When he finally calmed down it was like…like he was pretending it hadn’t even happened. Like he hadn’t just…almost killed…our Dad.” By now tears were streaming down Mikey’s face, his entire body shaking. 

“I…I didn’t see anything like…like… _that_ when I went in the house.” When Frank had gone looking for Gerard the house had been completely empty, albeit dark, but empty, he was sure.

“I, um, I called a friend. He’s helped us out before with similar…situations. He took Dad, said he’d take care of him, told me to look after Gerard and bring him over when I was ready. But I freaked out. After he left, I couldn’t go to Gee. I was _scared_. I ran. I left the house, locked it up, and ran. I shouldn’t have, I can’t even imagine what was going through Gee’s mind or how he was feeling but…I just _couldn’t_.” 

“There has to be some mistake, Gerard wouldn’t do something like –“

“He did! I’m his _brother_ , Frank. You’ve known him, what, a month? Maybe a bit longer? You literally know nothing about him! You ate all the lies he fed you and fucking begged for more.”

“Well maybe if you’d told me yourself about his situation! But no, instead you relied on your hope that he wouldn’t lie to me, and left me in this, this, mess!” 

A long silence fell over the two of them. Mikey was still crying, and Frank was even struggling to keep it together. A boy he thought he could read so easily, that he trusted, had…done something like this. Had _played_ Frank to get what he wanted, had made Frank become a factor in how things had turned out now. Did Gerard even like him? Had he just been using Frank to get what he wanted, to _feed?_ Frank felt sick, sicker than the time he discovered Gerard’s secret, sicker than the time his Dad left him and his Mom. Frank had welcomed this… _monster_ into his home, his _life_. He felt _sick_. 

“I…I’m going to set up everything for Gerard at our friends.” Mikey was the first to break the silence, rubbing his hands on his knees in an attempt to regain his composure. 

“Who is this friend?” 

“We’ve known him for years. He’s like Gerard. He’s got the same…condition. He knows how to handle it a lot better than Gerard does. He’s like a rehab for Gee when he’s in trouble. It’s all he’s got right now.” Frank looked back at his house, up to his bedroom window. How is any of this even possible? 

The guy that was sleeping in his bed right now was not the same guy that Mikey had just described. The guy who couldn’t stop talking about such innocent things was not the same guy that Mikey had just described. The guy that had kissed Frank so passionately, made Frank feel like he actually liked him, was not the same guy that Mikey had just described. No, this guy was someone else. This wasn’t Gerard. It wasn’t his Gerard, it wasn’t Mikey’s Gerard, it just wasn’t the Gerard they knew.

“I need you to keep looking after him while we get set up at the friend’s house. Gerard won’t come easily, and if I tell him now I’m just risking another freak out from him.” 

“How am I supposed to do that?” Frank was on the edge of a freak out himself. “I’m not putting my Mom in danger, not for you, not for anyone.”

“She’s not in danger,”

“Like hell she’s not! After what you just told me, what if he goes and attacks her next?” Mikey shot Frank a disgusted look, as if Frank was the one who had caused all this.

“He’s not a monster, Frank. He may seem like it right now but even you know that’s not who he is.” Frank did know that, he did, but right now all he could think about was how Gerard had lied to him, used him, and turned into someone he didn’t even know. “I gotta go. I’ll be back tomorrow to get him. It’d be great if you could come with us. It’d be good for him to have a friend there. Think about it.” 

Frank couldn’t do anything but think right now. He watched Mikey leave solemnly, not going back inside straight away, just needing a second to process everything that he was just told. _‘It’s dangerous for you, Frank’_. He couldn’t get that out of his head. 

Mikey didn’t really mean that, did he?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So next chapter is finally up, thank you guys for being really patient with this, I'll try to get the next chapter finished by tomorrow but I can't promise anything. Anyway, hope you enjoy it ^_^


	13. Chapter Thirteen

When Frank finally worked up the courage to go back inside, Gerard was still asleep, curled up in a tangled ball of duvet and sheets. He couldn’t bring himself to go and lie back down by Gerard’s side, and instead settled on his desk chair. As much as he hated to admit it, he was a little scared. What Mikey told him had freaked him out, greatly. Could he say he even knew this Gerard? Was this Gerard even remotely similar to the one he had to come like? Really like?

He couldn’t get over how Gerard had _lied_ to him, had _used_ him. Now he thought about it, all those looks Mikey had been giving Gerard that day when Gerard had been explaining what he could eat made sense. Mikey was making sure he _didn’t_ do this to Frank, making sure he told Frank the truth. It was just a shame Mikey had trusted Gerard enough to leave the room and let him tell Frank whatever he wanted.

“Hey Frankie.” Frank hadn’t even noticed that Gerard had woken up, rubbing his eyes and looking at Frank warmly, as if he hadn’t been lying to him this entire time. Frank supposed confronting Gerard wouldn’t be exactly what Mikey wanted, but at the same time he just couldn’t let it go. 

“How…how are you feeling?” Frank forced out, trying to act as if he hadn’t just had that conversation with Mikey. Gerard cocked his head to the side, confused. 

“I’m fine? Why?” he laughed, and now Frank was feeling the fear. 

“You know, after what happened this morning? Outside?” Gerard furrowed his brow in response. 

“What happened this morning? I woke up and you weren’t here, so I went back to sleep.” Frank couldn’t believe it. Was this the same thing that had happened with his Dad? Did his mind change the story to something less traumatic? _Is that how he dealt with things?_ “You okay, Frankie?” No, he wasn’t okay, not even a little bit. Everything was screwed up. 

“Gerard. What happened at your house?” He knew he wasn’t supposed to ask, he knew he shouldn’t ask, but he couldn’t help it. He was _angry._

“What do you mean? I told you –“ 

“No. No you didn’t.” He was gripping his knees tightly, trying to contain the anger that was threatening to overflow inside of him.

“Frankie…I…I don’t understand…”

“Yes you do!” Frank snapped, before taking a deep breath to calm himself after seeing the scared expression on Gerard’s face. “Yes you do.” He repeated, a little calmer this time. Gerard was wringing his hands together, a troubled look on his face.

“D – don’t be mad, Frankie…but…I really don’t know what you mean…I’m sorry.” In that moment, Gerard could have been an angel, not the unstable boy he really was. His eyes were wide, his hands clasped together, and Frank could have sworn that his bottom lip was even quivering. But after everything Mikey had told him, how did Frank know this wasn’t an act? Had their entire relationship been an act? Frank didn’t know, and he wasn’t sure he wanted to. 

“Gerard, this morning it wasn’t me who wasn’t here, it was you. I found you outside in the garden…eating… _something_ …some creature or something…” Gerard’s face crumpled, his innocent look disappearing completely. 

“No, no, _no_ ,” he frowned, shaking his head wildly, “ _No_ , why are you saying that, that didn’t _happen_.” 

“Yes, yes it did! I _found_ you, out there, I was the one that had to clean the blood off of you!” 

“No!” Gerard was grabbing his hair in fistfuls, pulling on it dangerously hard, and Frank knew he should back off, knew he shouldn’t have even gone this far in the first place, but he _couldn’t stop_. He was _angry_. “This morning I – I – I was…I was here…I was inside…that’s right…that’s right…isn’t it?” The question was more rhetorical, or Gerard asked it to himself, and Frank could see he was falling apart, he was on the edge and shouldn’t be pushed, but he still couldn’t stop. 

“And when I found you at your house, what you told me was a lie.”

“No, no, no, no, no, no, I told you the truth…I always tell you the truth, Frankie –“ 

“No you don’t!” Frank exploded, standing up so fast that he knocked over the chair he had been sitting on. Before Gerard could even try and defend himself with whatever new lie he’d just created, Frank continued shouting. “You don’t drink human blood.” 

Gerard’s eyes widened at this, like a deer caught in headlights, and his sights darted left and right as if looking for someone else to come bail him out. 

“How do you…why do you think that?” Gerard asked shakily, shoving the tip of his thumb into his mouth where he began furiously chewing on it. Frank didn’t bother replying; he only continued to glare at Gerard, knowing that Gerard knew he’d been had. “M’sorry Frankie.” 

“No, don’t you do that. I don’t want to hear any apologies right now, all I want to hear is _why_.” He hadn’t realised until now but he’d been slowly backing up towards his bedroom door, in case he needed a quick escape. But why would he need to even think about escaping? This was Gerard, he knew Gerard, or at least he thought he did. 

“You don’t understand, Frankie,” Gerard began, thumb still between his teeth. “The hunger…it’s not like anything you will have ever felt, it’s different, it _eats_ at me inside. And, and, it’s like nothing will satisfy it. Do you know what it’s like to live your entire life _starving?_ ” Frank noticed that Gerard’s thumb had turned stark white from the pressure his teeth were putting on it. “Human blood is the only way I get any relief from that hunger, even if only for a little while.”

“So your initial hesitation to take from me was just an act so I wouldn’t suspect anything?”

“No! No, I, I really didn’t want to hurt you but…”

“But you manipulated me into offering you my blood.” Frank finished, raising his voice slightly. 

“I want Mikey.” Gerard whispered, pulling his knees into his chest. 

“You lied to me, Gerard.”

“I want Mikey,” Gerard repeated, louder this time.

“Did you ever even like me?” Gerard’s head snapped up at this, anger filling his eyes. 

“Of course I did!”

“Then why did you lie to me?!” Both of them were yelling at each other now, Gerard getting more and more worked up. Gerard was about to yell something back, but stopped himself when he noticed how Frank had backed closer and closer towards the door, his eyes darkening slightly. 

“Are you scared of me, Frankie?” Gerard practically growled, and Frank’s knees almost buckled in terror. His eyes darted to the door behind him, as did Gerard’s, before both of their eyes locked. It was strange. Frank almost felt as if he was trapped in a cage with some sort of wild animal, and the second he broke eye contact that would be it, and his throat would be torn out and his insides would become a meal. 

As if a timer had gone off, both of them bolted towards the door, Frank sprinting the last few metres as he watched Gerard leap from the bed. It was as if everything happened in fast forward then. Frank reached the door and practically tore it from it’s hinges, before slamming shut just as Gerard reached it, only hearing the bang as Gerard’s body crashed into the wood of the door. 

Frank leant his back against it, resting his entire weight on the door in an attempt to keep Gerard in. 

“Let me out! You're not allowed to do this to me!” Gerard screamed, Frank’s back shaking with every pound from the other side of the door. “ _Frankie!_ ” And Frank jolted forward as what felt like the entire weight of Gerard was thrown against the door. Gerard was strong. Frank had forgotten how strong he could be when he got like this. He wasn’t going to be able to keep Gerard inside just by himself, he wasn’t sure if even two of him could hold that boy back. He looked over to the small chest of drawers in the hallway just by the bathroom, the one that contained old stuff they didn’t need anymore but his Mom insisted on keeping. 

With one shoulder firmly on the door, he used every ounce of strength in his small body to reach out with his feet and tilt the drawers towards him, barely catching it with his free hand, before removing himself from the door and placing the chest of drawers in his place, just in time before Gerard made another attempt to break it down.

“I want Mikey!” Gerard screamed over and over again, slamming various parts of himself against the door continuously. Frank kept pushing against the chest of drawers, this even struggling to keep the door closed, but it was holding up, for now. “Frankie this is not what friends do!” Gerard growled, at least Frank assumed it was Gerard, but he hardly recognised the voice at all. It was dark and low and full of anger. Frank was terrified. 

Frank screwed his eyes up and tried to block out the continuous screaming of Gerard. He knew he shouldn’t have pushed it, Mikey had warned him, but he didn’t listen, and as a result he’d broken Gerard and wasn’t sure if he could fix him again. 

Frank just kept his shoulder on the chest of drawers, and cried.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay again guys, but be prepared to wait a while for the next chapter as I have a busy next few days so I wont get a chance to write as much, but I hope you like this chapter ^_^


	14. Chapter Fourteen

Frank wasn’t sure how much time had passed when Gerard had finally calmed down enough and had stopped trying to escape Frank’s room. Luckily he’d had his phone in his pocket and texted Mikey telling him that he needed to come and pick up Gerard right now, that tomorrow was not gonna cut it. 

He didn’t dare move the chest of drawers; he didn’t know what state Gerard was in right now, and thought it would be best to wait for Mikey to come and handle it. He was thankful when the doorbell rang before his Mom had gotten home from work. He had no idea how to explain the current situation to her. He shouted down that the door was open, still not trusting Gerard’s state enough to leave guard of the door, and just prayed that it was in fact Mikey, and not some random stranger that he’d just invited into his home. 

“Frank?” Mikey’s voice came from downstairs, Frank exhaling a great sigh of relief at the rescue. 

“I’m up here!” He replied, trying to think of way to explain how this looked to Mikey without implicating himself. Mikey appeared at the top of the stairs, looking at Frank pressed up against the drawers against the door, wide eyed and concerned. 

“Whoa, what the fuck happened here?” a voice that Frank didn’t recognise laughed, looking amused at the current situation he was in. The voice came from a guy stood behind Mikey. He was tall, much taller than Frank or any of his friends. He had long dark hair that reached down to his shoulders, and looked like it could do with a good wash, but then again with the state Mikey was in he couldn’t really single out the guy for that. He had a few tattoos running up his arms, indicating to Frank that he was slightly older too, possibly in his mid–twenties. His complexion was pale, not as pale as Gerard or Mikey’s right now, but pale, and his eyes were red, bloodshot, as if he hadn’t slept for the past several days, but the guy had a calming aura about him. That was probably why he was here. “Hi. I’m Bert.” The guy gave Frank a two-fingered salute before shoving his hands in his pockets and going back to looking entertained by the situation. 

“This is the friend I was talking about.” Mikey clarified, frowning at the drawers held up against the door. Frank nodded to the guy who he now knew as Bert before turning to Mikey again, a helpless expression on his face. “I’m guessing my brother is in there?” He jerked his head towards the door and Frank responded with a nod. “Why is he in there?”

“He went fucking crazy!” Frank exclaimed, wondering why the hell Mikey was even asking such a question when he’d told him what Gerard was capable of this morning. “He tried to jump me, and then he’d been trying to break down the door for about an hour before he calmed down.” 

“Did you say something to him?” Mikey narrowed his eyes as if he already knew the answer, which of course he did. Brother's intuition.

“How can you expect me to have kept quiet?”

“Jesus Christ, Frank! I told you not to!”

“I didn’t mention what really happened at the house, I just couldn’t keep quiet about the fact that he’d lied,” Frank decided bypass what had also happened with Gerard outside this morning. The entire situation was already fucked up enough without adding more oil to the fire, or whatever the saying was.

“You can’t do that when he’s like this!” Frank was about to go all out on Mikey’s ass, angry at having been put in a situation like this in the first place, but Bert interrupted, walking towards Frank to start moving the drawers out of the way of the door. 

“Look,” Bert began, “There’s no point arguing, what’s done is done, let’s just get Gee out of there and get him back to mine, alright? The quicker we help him the better, because from what I’ve heard he’s never been this bad before.” Mikey nodded in response and Frank slid away from the drawers as Bert pushed it out of the way, freeing the door. 

Mikey was the first to step forward, slowly opening the door, peeking his head around the side. Frank decided to keep out of the way for this one, not wanting to trigger anything in Gerard again. 

“Mikey?” Frank heard Gerard’s voice, tired and broken, but hopeful at the sight of his brother appearing. Frank peered around to find the Way brothers embraced, Gerard clinging to Mikey tightly, Mikey doing just the same back to him. 

“I’m sorry I left you, Gee.” Mikey apologised straight away, gently stroking the top of Gerard’s head.

“I think I did something bad to Frankie.” Gerard ignored Mikey’s apology, probably not quite understanding it. “I think I did something really bad, Mikes.” A part of Frank wanted to go over there and console Gerard himself, but another part of him wanted to get as far away from him as possible, still terrified by the version of Gerard he’d witnessed beforehand. 

“Hey, Gee. Long time no see.” Bert smiled at Gerard, Gerard lifting his head in response, a puzzled look on his face. 

“Bert?” Bert nodded, crouching down so that he was almost level with the brothers.

“Hey, Gee, we, Mikey and me, we’re gonna take you back to mine for a little while, is that okay?”

“Why?” Gerard frowned, Frank noticing how his grip tightened on Mikey ever so slightly. 

“Well we haven’t seen each other in a while, right? Don’t you think it would be nice to catch up? Mikey will be there too.” He reassured, making sure not to give anything away about the true intention of the invite. 

“Mmm, I don’t think Dad will let me.” Frank noticed Mikey wince at this, Gerard still in his delusion that what had actually happened at his home hadn’t happened at all, that his Dad was perfectly fine, and Gerard hadn’t viciously attacked him, resulting in the mess they were in now.

“Don’t worry, I’ve already asked him, he said it was fine.” Bert smiled, bumping Gerard’s chin affectionately. “So what do you say?” Frank could tell they were close, Gerard and Bert, or had used to be at least. It gave him a sense of comfort that Gerard was going somewhere safe, somewhere people other than his brother cared about him. It made Frank feel less guilty, he supposed. He could see how much Gerard trusted Bert too, could see the affection in his expression, could hear the reliance in his words.

“Can Frankie come with us?” Bert didn’t say anything, but looked to Mikey who hesitated before sighing.

“We’ll ask him but he’s got a lot of stuff to do too I think.” Mikey told him, sending Frank a look through the door, almost disapproving and understanding at the same time. Frank couldn’t go with them, not right now at least. First off he couldn’t just disappear without telling him Mom some form of information of where he was going, and secondly, he wasn’t sure he wanted to. He had been scared, he was _still_ scared, and he needed time to repair that. 

Frank decided to disappear when they escorted Gerard outside to, presumably Bert’s, car, not being able to face Gerard right now. Mikey had slipped him a crumpled up note with Bert’s address on, in case Frank changed his mind and wanted to visit he guessed. He shoved the note into the back pocket of his jeans and decided to forget about it for a while, needing a break to collect himself.

He went to the front window to watch them help Gerard into the back of Bert’s car, Gerard not even glancing towards Frank’s house as they began to drive away. Frank almost wanted to run outside, to tell them to wait, that he would go with them. Almost. He wasn’t quite sure which it was that stopped him. He wasn’t sure whether it was the fact that Gerard had lied to him; he wasn’t sure whether it was the fact that Gerard had become something he couldn’t understand, he just wasn’t sure of anything anymore. 

Frank was still staring out of the same window hours after the car had left, not sure what to do with himself. By the time he’d finally worked up the courage to move himself away, his Mom had returned from work carrying several arms of groceries, reminding Frank that he also hadn’t eaten yet today. 

“Hey, honey, where’s Gerard?” His Mom asked as soon as she stumbled through the door with the heavy bags, seeing Frank alone. “Could you give me a hand with these?”

“He’s gone back home.” Frank lied, grabbing half of the bags from his Mom and dumping them on the kitchen table. 

“Really? I thought he might have been here a while from the sounds of things, I bought all this stuff thinking he was gonna stay.”

“Yeah I guess things worked out quicker than expected,” another lie, “I’m sorry.”

“You don’t have to apologise!” His Mom came over and wrapped her arms tightly around him, and Frank began to feel his bottom lip quiver. “You did a good thing, helping him out, and it’s just even better that he managed to sort it out so soon. You’ll just be having double portions for meals for the week.” She smiled warmly, reminding Frank why he thought his Mom was the best in the world. “You sure you're okay? You seem a little down.”

“I’m fine.” Frank nodded, the third lie, “Just tired I guess.” He shrugged, pulling out of his Mom’s embrace and turning towards the stairs. “I think I’m gonna turn in early.” He felt even guiltier than before, having to lie that Gerard had sorted everything out, when in reality, nothing had been sorted out, when in reality everything had gotten much, much worse. His Mom frowned, a concerned look on her face, but she didn’t try to stop Frank and press him further. 

“Gerard’s gonna be okay, you know?” She added just before Frank had disappeared up the stairs. Frank didn’t reply, he couldn’t. He didn’t know Gerard was going be okay. He didn’t know that _he_ was going to be okay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter finally up! I'm gonna work hard to try and get more regular updates!


	15. Chapter Fifteen

The next morning Frank decided to go to school as normal. He’d already had more than a few days off and he didn’t need to be behind on his work anymore than he already was. He also probably owed his friends an explanation for his recent distant demeanor. 

It was weird going back to school knowing that the thing that had been making him so eager to go had disappeared now. He wasn’t sure when that thing was going to return. Throughout most of his lessons he kept quiet, kept his head down, not being able to think about anything but Gerard and the situation he was in. He felt partially responsible. Was he responsible? It was his fault he’d caused Gerard to have another breakdown yesterday; he’d pushed him too far. He supposed it was also his fault for being manipulated by Gerard, for trusting him so easily. Was everything his fault? No, he shouldn’t be thinking about this right now. He shouldn’t be thinking about it _at all_. This wasn’t his problem anymore. Gerard was gone now. He was going to get better, and it was none of Frank’s business.

“Frank? Hey, Frank!” Bob’s voice brought him back to the real world, reminding Frank that he actually had a life before he’d met the Way brothers. 

“Sorry, what?” Frank shook his head, as if trying to shake out the memories of the past too.

“Where’s Gerard and Mikey? They haven’t turned up to class in weeks.” Ray continued, a worried look crossing his face. Frank had been expecting this, had come prepared for it, having already formed a feasible excuse when he woke up this morning. Whether they believed it or not wasn’t his problem, he just needed to tell them something other than the truth. 

“Uh, Gerard got really sick, and Mikey’s taking some time off to help look after him.” Frank meticulously lied, but his tone was uninterested, bored, as if he didn’t really care what excuse he told them. He found it difficult to care about a lot of things these days.

“Really? I hope he’s okay.” Patrick spoke up, chewing on his lip worriedly. “Is it a serious illness? He’s been off a while…” Frank merely shrugged in response, picking at the crusts of his sandwiches, playing with the crumbs. 

“Have you gone to visit him?” Bob asked, his face full of concern for Frank’s attitude. Frank shook his head, not even looking up at his friend. “Maybe you should,” Bob suggested, “You're clearly not dealing with this fine at all.” Frank could only shrug again, not being able to tell them the real reason for not having visited yet, not being able to tell them anything of the truth. 

The rest of the day went by rather slowly, which pissed Frank off because it meant that he had more time to think about what had happened, and he didn’t want to do that. Not at all. When the day had finally come to an end, Frank was relieved to go home and hole himself up in his room to sulk for the remainder of the night. 

“Frank! Hey, Frank! Wait up, man!” Ray was running down the hall waving frantically at Frank to get his attention. Frank reluctantly stopped, deciding not to just straight up ignore the guy, they were friends after all, and Ray had been there for Frank whenever things were tough. Now was no different. 

But it was different. Frank couldn’t share this with Ray, it wasn’t his to share, and because of that Ray couldn’t help him this time, he knew he couldn’t. This time he knew he was alone. 

“Frank, hey, I thought you could come over, hang out for a while, you know?” Ray’s eyes were big, almost pleading with Frank to say yes, but also full of disappointment as he knew what the answer was already going to be.

“Thanks, Ray, but I think I’m just gonna head home. I’m really tired, didn’t sleep well last night.” That wasn’t really a lie. He really was tired and had hardly slept at all last night. It was probably just going to be the same scenario tonight, but he at least had to try. Ray looked as if he wanted to say something, to try and convince Frank otherwise, but seemed to think better of it, taking a step back and looking down at his shoes. 

“Alright, okay,” Frank sent Ray an apologetic look, genuinely feeling a little bad but at the same time not being able to bring himself to change his mind. “Um, could you tell Mikey that I hope he’s okay, I hope that _they're_ okay?” Frank agreed to do so, though he didn’t know when. First he needed to build up the courage himself to actually speak to the Way brothers again.

He walked home at a fast pace, not wanting to be stopped again, not sure if he’d be able to keep everything to himself if he was stopped a second time. 

*  
The next few days at school were the same. Frank turned up, did as little socialising as possible, before returning home and staying in his room until the next day arrived and he had to repeat the entire process all over again. Each of his friends had had a word with him in turn, expressing their concern and asking if he’d visited Gerard yet. His reply was always the same. 

After about a week had passed, he was feeling ready to dropout of school and become a shut-in. He didn’t know why this situation with Gerard had affected him so badly. It was like Mikey said, he’d only known Gerard for a couple of months, so why was he so hung up on him? Why couldn’t he just get over him already? It was screwing up his life! 

He shoved his hands into the back pockets of his jeans in exasperation, not paying much mind when his fingers brushed a small piece of paper jammed at the bottom of the fabric. He pulled out the slip of paper and unfolded it, curious as to what it was, but mostly out of boredom. 

It was Bert’s address.

Frank had forgotten about it, that Mikey had given it to him, whenever he wanted to visit. Did he want to visit? Did he want to see Gerard? Was he ready to? 

He sat down on the edge of his bed, paper in hand, just staring at it. What was stopping him? But also, what was his reason to consider going? It had already been a week; maybe Gerard and Mikey had considered him a lost cause. Maybe they’d moved on already. 

_Don’t be stupid; it’s only been a week._

Would they still even be there? He supposed he could try and call Mikey first, before deciding anything, to check what the situation was. He could do that, right? He groaned, lying back on the bed and flinging an arm across his eyes. He didn’t know why he was making it more difficult than it needed to be. He could either go, or not go. Simple. 

Frank stayed like that for a while, eventually reaching out towards his nightstand to check the time on his clock, accidentally knocking several books and papers off as he did so. He sighed, frustrated, and reached over the side of his bed to clean up the mess. While sorting the papers back into a neat pile, a photo caught his eye. A Polaroid. 

It was the one Gerard had taken of them both, with the makeup smudged all over Frank’s face, Gerard laughing into his shoulder, practically almost on top of him, his face filled with happiness. Frank felt a burning behind his eyes where tears were threatening to spill forwards, but he took a deep breath, and kept them at bay. He was not going to cry, not anymore, no way in hell. 

He raised the crumpled paper to his face, alongside the Polaroid of him and Gerard. He’d already made his decision; he’d made it the day Gerard had left here. He stuffed the note back into his pocket, and the placed the photo back on his desk, before closing his eyes, trying not to think about anything.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I know this is a stupidly short chapter, but I'm aiming for uploads every other day, so that sorta explains it I guess, and I think it's kinda close to the end too. Anyway, hopefully the next chapter will be a reasonable length, but enjoy!


	16. Chapter Sixteen

Frank had to take two buses just to get him near the address, and then a 30-minute walk to actually get there. It wasn’t like Bert lived in the middle of nowhere, so he didn’t understand why there weren’t any buses that ran nearby, but on the bright side, at least the walk gave him a chance to prepare himself. He hadn’t actually told any of them that he was going to visit today. It was a Sunday, and he told his Mom he was spending the day at Bob’s house, but when he took out his phone to give Mikey a head’s up on his arrival, he couldn’t do it. For some reason, telling someone else made it too real and scared him. Doing it this way, he could change his mind any time he wanted and not disappoint. 

He reached the front door of the house that he thought was correct, pulling out the note with the address on to confirm it. The house was nice, much nicer than what he expected Bert to live in. It had a Victorian feel to it, or like it should contain the entire contents of his Aunt’s antique shop. He was hoping it didn’t smell the same. He could feel himself beginning to get nervous again, his brain thinking about how easy it would be just to leave, how no one would even notice. Before he could act on any of those thoughts, his arm seemed to reach out of it’s own accord, his hand creating a series of three rapid knocks on the door.

It felt like not even a second had passed before the door swung open and Bert was stood there, not looking even a little bit surprised to see Frank standing there, hands stuffed in pockets. 

“Hey, Frank, was it?” Frank nodded awkwardly, shuffling his feet slightly. “It’s about time you showed up! Gee hasn’t shut up about you.” Bert practically pulled Frank inside, shutting the door behind them both before giving Frank a firm pat on the back. “Nice, huh?” Frank assumed he was talking about the house, having noticed Frank admiring it. The inside was very spacious, he could tell from just standing in the hallway. 

The hallway seemed to branch off to several different rooms before ending with a set of tall stairs at the back of the house. The ceilings were high, really high, cobwebs covering the unreachable corners, making the house seem even more archaic. The walls were white, greying slightly, but still white enough to see the spider’s silk against them. Frank followed Bert towards the stairs, passing several rooms, one he noticed being a kitchen with a black and white chessboard flooring, and an oven that looked like it came from the 1920s; a lounge with cheap leather couches in and an oversized TV that took up half of the room space, and a small bathroom, the door only somewhat ajar so he couldn’t really see what it looked like. All in all, it seemed to be very upscale for someone of Bert’s demeanor. 

“Some couple were killed in here like a hundred years ago, so it was super cheap. I don’t believe in ghosts and all that shit, so I snapped it up right away.” Frank supposed that could explain the price, the same situation happened in a lot of horror movies he’d seen. But he couldn’t help but find it amusing that Bert didn’t believe in the paranormal when he was housing someone who basically was the paranormal. Come to think of it, Mikey had mentioned how Bert was the same as Gerard, hadn’t he?

“They're aren’t any buses that come down here.” Frank mentioned, just trying to make some form of small talk as Bert led him up the high staircase. 

“Yeah, the streets get really narrow as you go down, there’s been a lot of accidents because of it, so it was commissioned that the bus routes wouldn’t go down this way anymore.” Bert shrugged as if it wasn’t a big deal that Frank had had to walk almost 2 miles just to get to his freaking door. “Gerard’s in that room to left,” Bert pointed to a door that he noticed had a lock on the outside. “Mikey should be in there with him, shout if you need anything, alright?” Frank nodded, taking a deep breath, which Bert apparently noticed. “You’ve got nothing to worry about, man.” Bert assured him, nodding towards the door again, “You know who Gee really is, so you know you don’t have to be afraid of him, right?” Did he know Gerard though? He thought he did, but then everything had happened, resulting in chaos in everything he thought he knew. 

By the time he’d worked up enough courage to enter the room, he turned to Bert to thank him, but the guy was already making his way back downstairs, giving Frank his two-fingered salute behind him. He gave a small smile to himself, wishing he’d had Bert to guide him while growing up, before making his way over to the door and knocking lightly. 

“Come in!” he heard Mikey’s voice shout from inside, and didn’t give himself time to start getting anxious again before he opened the door and stepped into the room. 

The room was fairly big, a lot bigger than Frank’s. There was a double bed up against the right wall of the room, the covers messy and unmade, not that Frank had any problem with that, he supposed bed making wasn’t on the top of any of their lists right now. There was a dark wood dresser on the opposite wall to the bed, a small TV resting on top. There was also a very small fridge in the far corner of the room, which he guessed made sense. He supposed while Gerard was getting better he couldn’t leave the room much; it also explained the lock on the door. The blinds of the room were closed; Frank assumed they might’ve been for a long, long time, possibly the entire time Gerard has been here. Pillows covered the entire floor, maybe to make the room seem more comforting than it was, and in the centre of all the pillows sat Gerard and Mikey, comics sprawled out around them, the brother’s sat reading together. 

“Frankie!” Gerard’s attention immediately left his comics as he saw Frank, but then shifted uncomfortably, his excitement dimming as a guilty look spread across his face instead. Frank smiled, but Gerard didn’t see it, his sight not moving from his lap. Mikey stood up, tossing his comic onto the bed before walking over towards Frank. 

“You gonna be okay?” he asked, and Frank was grateful for the question, grateful knowing it wasn’t expected of him to be completely fine in this situation. Frank shrugged and nodded, Mikey giving him one last look down the lenses of his glasses before leaving the room, shutting the door behind him.

Frank stood there awkwardly for a few moments, waiting for another form of response from Gerard, but when realising he wasn’t going to get one, he made his way towards the mass of pillows, sitting himself down next to Gerard.  
“Hey, Gee,” he began, and Gerard finally looked up at him, eyes wide and worried. “How’ve you been?” Gerard entwined his fingers together, twisting them this way and that as he shrugged noncommittally

“A lot better, I think.” He finally settled upon.

“That’s good.” A silence that felt everlasting fell upon them after that, until Gerard looked back up at Frank again, tears brimming at the edge of his eyes. 

“I did something really bad,” he began, the entwining of his fingers become more violent. “Mikey and Dad didn’t leave me alone, that’s not how it happened, I remember now. I…I hurt him –“ 

“I know.” Frank interrupted so Gerard didn’t have to go through the pain of retelling it, and so Frank didn’t have to go through the pain of rehearing it. “I know.” He repeated, softer this time. 

“And…and…I hurt you too.” Gerard bit his lip, a frown forming on his face. 

“I know.”

“I didn’t mean it, Frankie. Honestly, I didn’t.”

“I know that too.” And somewhere inside him, Frank found the courage to reach out and place his hand on Gerard’s to help calm him, the gesture feeling like the most natural thing he’d done since the start of the incident. 

“I remember a lot of things now. I remember a lot of people I’ve hurt. I…I don’t want to do it again…I don’t want to become… _that_ …again…” Gerard leant into Frank, and Frank didn’t push him away, didn’t reject him, but instead wrapped an arm around his shoulder and comforted him, and it almost, _almost_ , felt like how it was at the beginning. “I’m really sorry, I really, really am, and I know I can’t change what I’ve done, but…” Gerard trailed off towards the end and didn’t make any effort to pick up where he left off, but Frank knew what he was getting at, had always known. 

“I’m not going to leave your side, Gee. I’m not.” And he was sure he felt Gerard’s muscles relax at that, all his fear leave him, and Frank felt some of his own fear disappear too.

*  
Frank stayed with Gerard, reading comics together, Gerard telling him useless facts about certain characters. It was still a little strained between them, a little awkward, but their relationship was slowly repairing itself with each word exchanged between them. 

After, what Frank assumed was a couple of hours, had passed, Bert came in with a tray holding several opaque cups, transporting them over to the little fridge in the corner, removing what seemed to be the empty cups. Frank knew what it was. He didn’t have to see inside the cups to know; he could easily put two and two together. Gerard’s gaze had been fixated on the new cups Bert had brought in as soon as he’d stepped through the door. Frank remembered what Gerard had said about being hungry, how he described the hunger as never stopping, and he knew it was human blood in those cups, so he couldn’t imagine how Gerard would be feeling. 

“Remember, pace yourself.” Bert said to Gerard, rather stern compared to his usual carefree attitude. “There’s no more till this evening.” Gerard nodded, his eyes still on the fridge. “Just remember everything I told you. It’ll be fine.” Gerard nodded again, finally managing to tear his sight away and place it back on Frank, giving him a wobbly smile to try and make it look like he was okay. 

“Wanna watch a film? Bert’s got a good horror collection.” Gerard suggested.

“Hell yeah I have.” Bert grinned, before taking the tray of empty cups out, closing the door behind him. 

“You can choose, I don’t mind.” Gerard offered, his gaze glancing towards the fridge every now and again mid sentence. He needed a distraction, that’s what he was doing. He wanted a distraction and he wanted one badly.

“Go pick a film.” Frank smiled warmly, “I’ll rearrange these cushions."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter up! Gonna work hard to try and keep this regular every other day uploading, also, than you guys so much for your comments, they really make me smile ^_^


	17. Chapter Seventeen

The film distracted Gerard enough that he fell asleep, his head resting against Frank’s shoulder. Frank slowly slid out from beneath Gerard, carefully lowering his head onto a pillow so that he wouldn’t wake. He crept out of the room, gently shutting the door behind him, before making his way back downstairs, finding Bert and Mikey in the lounge he’d seen on the way in.

“He’s asleep.” Frank announced as he sat down on the couch opposite the other two. 

“That’s good. Did he…?” Bert began to ask, and Frank knew what he meant.

“He didn’t have a drink. The film distracted him well. But he’s probably going to be really hungry when he wakes up.” Frank explained, leaning back into the cheap leather. For some reason, his small session with Gerard had exhausted him. 

“He’s gonna be just as hungry as he is now.” Bert sighed, giving Mikey a sympathetic pat on the shoulder. “The hunger doesn’t stop, not really. Human blood works, but not if you don’t want to lose yourself, a part of yourself you won’t get back. It’s hard, but it’s much better than the alternative.” 

“What do you eat then?” Frank asked, curious, deciding now would be a good a time as any to get the full details about everything so this situation didn’t happen again.

“Animal blood. It’s really the only thing that will slightly satisfy our hunger. It doesn’t taste great, but it’s like a godsend when you feel like you're starving. Gerard’s lucky; he’s got the willpower to change. I’ve seen people who couldn’t resist turn into things that can’t even be described.”

“What happens to them?” Mikey shifted uncomfortably at Frank’s question, but didn’t attempt to divert Bert from answering it. 

“They become…a shell. A husk. It’s as if they're body is just a machine that can't think for itself anymore. They forget who they are, they forget who others are, and all they can do is feed. It’s not a nice thing to witness. They’re usually put down, by others like us, to…well, you can guess why.” Frank shivered at that last part. _They were put down? Like animals?_ Frank couldn’t even begin to imagine Mikey being able to do that to his own brother. No wonder they had been so protective over him. “It’s not their fault, really.” Bert continued, sighing and leaning back into the couch, his arms draped over the back of it. “You're permanently torn between wanting to get rid of that starving feeling and wanting to keep your sanity. The starving feeling can take away some of your sanity though, so it’s easy to see why some people just can’t fight it anymore.” 

“And…Gerard…he’s gonna be okay?” Frank asked hesitantly, because the answer might not have been the one he was hoping for, the one they all wanted. 

“Gerard should be okay. The first couple of days were hard for him, really hard. There was a lot of screaming, a lot of pain. But eventually he calmed down, and I’ve been teaching him ways to control that hunger feeling. He’s doing well.” 

“And…your Dad?” Frank directed this question to Mikey. Mikey swallowed before looking down his nose at Frank just to be able see through his glasses perched on the end. 

“He’s okay. He’s with a friend of Bert’s, he takes good care of people.” It was a short answer, didn’t give much away, but Frank guessed it told him what he needed to know.

“You said situations like this have happened before?” Frank wasn’t sure if he should pry, but he also felt like he had a right to know, considering how involved he was now. 

“Yeah, but not as bad as this,” Mikey began, bringing his thumbs up to his temple, massaging them in small circular motions. “Our Mom died when we were really young, she basically smoked herself to death. Wanted to let go at home though. Gerard found her first. Then Dad found Gerard, sucking the blood out of Mom’s lifeless body. Said she wouldn’t need it anymore. Dad went crazy, obviously. Gerard freaked out when he realised what he had done, had a breakdown and began scratching at his throat, really violently, wanting to “give the blood back”. That’s when Bert came along. Obviously he wasn’t much older than Gerard had been, but he was good with him, and it was good for Gerard to have a friend.” Frank was in shock. That had really happened? 

“And that still wasn’t as bad as this?” Frank asked incredulously. 

“I wasn’t scared of him then.” Mikey looked Frank dead in the eyes as he said it. “I wasn’t scared for my own life then.” 

*  
Frank left around late afternoon time, Mikey promising to tell Gerard he’d said bye. He could’ve stayed till Gerard woke up, told him goodbye himself, but he didn’t want to. He’d learnt a lot of stuff about Gerard’s past today, and he wasn’t sure he would be able to be enough for Gerard. Only now, after today’s conversation, did he realise how much pain Gerard was carrying around with him, how much pain he was feeling every single second of every single day. How could Frank possibly help? How could he take away Gerard’s pain? He remembered the smiling, non-stop talking Gerard he’d first met, the Gerard that seemed to have no problems at all. But in reality, it was Gerard who was suffering the most. 

And Frank had the audacity to get mad at Gerard for lying to him, to be _scared_ of Gerard. Gerard was the one terrified; terrified of himself, of the damage he could do, of his past. Mikey had said he was scared for his life, but even still, he’d tried his hardest not to leave his brother’s side, and when he had, he’d come back for him. Frank on the other hand, Frank wouldn’t have been able to do that. If not for Mikey reminding him that his brother wasn’t a monster, that Frank knew the kind boy his brother was, Frank might have abandoned him completely. 

He felt worse on the way home than he had making his way to Bert’s house. 

*

That night he dreamt. He dreamt he was in a house, a house he didn’t recognise. It was big and bright and gave Frank a feeling of comfort. He appeared to be alone, but the house was so calming he wasn’t scared. There were several doors lining the hallway, but only one of them was unlocked, the door at the farthest end being slightly ajar, beckoning Frank to come forward. 

He reached the door, not wasting any time, pushing it open and stepping through. Gerard was in the room, but wasn’t paying attention to him. Instead, Gerard was feeding from something, or someone. Frank froze, his grip on the door handle tightening, but he couldn’t move. He wasn’t in control of his movements; his feet wouldn’t move an inch. His breath hitched in his throat, alerting Gerard of his presence who turned around to look at Frank, a big grin plastered on his face.

But, his face seemed distorted somehow. His cheeks were sagged, his skin pale and flaking; his teeth were coated in a red film, all crooked and razor sharp, pointing in the wrong directions, some of the teeth driving their way into Gerard’s own gums and cheeks. The only thing that showed any sign of the real Gerard were the eyes, and they seemed to be pleading for Frank to help him, to save him from something, but Frank didn’t know how.

“You're not gonna need it anymore, right, Frankie? So I can have it, right, Frankie?” Gerard spoke in a long drawn out tone, his voice cracking with every other word. Frank couldn’t understand what he meant.

But then he saw what Gerard was feeding from. 

It was a corpse. _His_ corpse.

And the longer Frank stared at it, the quicker it seemed to go through the phases of decomposition. His body began to swell, secreting gaseous odors, his skin began to turn blue then black as the gas escaped his body, causing it to collapse in on itself. Larvae began to crawl out of the orifices of Frank’s corpse, coating his dead, drying skin in a sticky substance. 

It wasn’t until Frank reached out his hand that he noticed his own skin swelling, before collapsing and turning a deathly black. He was becoming his own corpse. He screamed, but no sound came out, only maggots as they began to crawl out from beneath his tongue, getting crushed beneath his teeth. His skin began to spasm and contract as more maggots began to burst through his tissue, liquefying his muscle beneath. 

“You don’t need it anymore, right, Frankie?” And now when Frank looked down, Gerard had his teeth in Frank’s arm, sucking out the blood along with decomposed flesh and squirming maggots. Frank wanted to throw up, could feel the bile in the back of his throat, but couldn’t do anything, the larvae hindering his gag reflexes. 

“Help…me…” the voice came from the back of the room, and Frank saw Gerard, but not the one that was currently devouring him. This Gerard was the one that Frank knew, but he was chained up, his eyes red and bloodshot, his cheeks puffed up from his tears. “Help…me…Frankie,” he pleaded, reaching out towards him.

“I don’t know how...” the voice managed to escape Frank somehow, managed to push it’s way through the death and decay in his mouth.

“Help…me…”

“I don’t know how!” Frank repeated, louder this time, almost a shout, and the Gerard that was feeding on his putrid flesh snapped his head up at Frank, snarling.

“Why not?!” he demanded, gore dripping from his angry expression. “Do you not care about me?”

“I do!” Frank cried, helplessly. 

“Why are you here? To watch me suffer? Why wont you help me!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright so I think there's only 2 or 3 more chapters left, I haven't written them yet so I don't really know but that's my guess. Anyway, hope you enjoy ^_^


	18. Chapter Eighteen

Frank woke up, covered in sweat, tears streaming from his eyes. He looked over at his bedside table, his clock reading 4am. Maybe it was 4am; the light hurt his eyes too much, so he had to squint, blurring the numbers. He kicked the sheets off of him, trying to let the cool air reach his body. He needed something to take his mind off the nightmare he’d just had, but he wasn’t sure how. All he knew was that he sure as hell wasn’t going to be able to go back to sleep. The nightmare was at the forefront of his mind, the hellish images still running through his brain. All he could do was screw up his eyes and wait. 

He was still awake when his alarm went off, telling him it was time to get up for school. He was relieved; school should be able to take his mind off…everything. He dressed himself, throwing on a plain t-shirt and some worn jeans. His Mom pointed out how he looked haggard, suggesting that he take the day off. Frank refused, wanting to do anything but stay home where the nightmare would be most prominent on his mind. 

He took his time walking there, the passing buildings managing to do a better job at distracting him than he thought it would. He kept his head down, making sure not to make eye contact with any of the passing students, thinking that they’d somehow manage to see into him, _inside_ him; that they’d know what he was afraid of, what he’d seen, and what he couldn’t do. 

His first class went pretty quickly, seeing as he was actually making an effort to pay attention this time. By the time break arrived, he was actually feeling much better. He managed to walk into the canteen with a slight smile on his face, though some may have argued it looked much more like a grimace. He sat down at his usual table, his friends already there and chatting intensely about something. 

“Hey, guys, what’s up?” He forced out a nonchalant expression, partially fooling even himself.

“Well if it isn’t Iero deciding to grace us with his presence!” Bob exclaimed sarcastically, Frank clipping him over the head as he sat down. 

“Ha – ha, very funny,” Frank replied, sitting down next to Pete, stealing one of his fries. “I know I’ve been…off…recently, but I’m feeling a lot better now. I think I was just fighting off some infection or something.” He lied, but it was a lot easier than telling the truth.

“Yeah, man, it’s okay, you can be like that sometimes, we were only messing with you.” Bob smiled, throwing a scrunched up napkin at Frank, hitting him square in the forehead. “It’s probably just because you're missing Gerard so much, right? Well it’ll be back to normal soon, Mikey called Ray.”

“W – what?” Frank half choked on the fry he’d been chewing on, trying to regain any composure he’d had. “What – what did he say?” 

“He said he’d be back in school next week,” Ray replied happily, “He said Gerard was doing much better, so he’d been in school next week and Gerard would probably be in the week after. Cool, huh?” 

“Yeah…cool…” Frank wasn’t ready for their return, he was terrified. What if Gerard was expecting it to go back to the way it was before? He wanted that, god, did he want that, but he knew he couldn’t have it. He couldn’t help Gerard the way he needed. He’d thought this when he left Bert’s after his visit, and his nightmare last night only confirmed it. He just couldn’t be with Gerard. He couldn’t. 

“Yo, Frank? You alright?” Pete’s voice snapped him out of his anxiety brainstorm, pulling him back into the real world, the real world where none of his friends knew his problems, where none of his friends _could_ know his problems.

“Uh, yeah, yeah, I’m fine,” he lied for the second time today.

“He’s probably just excited that his boyfriend’s finally returning!” Pete grinned, patting Frank on the back. All Frank could do was laugh uncomfortably, hoping that no one saw through his façade. 

*  
Ray was right, Mikey did return to school the next week. Frank saw him by the lockers as he made his way into school the next Monday morning. He’d spent the entire last week trying to pretend everything was normal before he had to face what he was afraid of. 

Mikey saw him first, so Frank wasn’t able to try and hide from him. It’s not like he was going to be able to avoid the Way brothers for the rest of life anyway. 

“Hey, Frank.” Mikey gave a wry smile as he slammed his locker closed, tucking today’s books into his bag.

“Hey, Mikey. Ray told me you’d called, told him you’d be back this week.” Frank toed the floor with his sneakers, creating a squeaky sound that echoed through the school halls. “Um, about Gerard –“ 

“He’ll be in next week hopefully. He’s a lot better, Bert’s just wanting another week just to be safe, which I’m not gonna complain about. My Dad’s also a lot better too. He’s back at home, so…that’s something. Gerard hasn’t seen him yet. But it’ll be okay.” Frank wasn’t sure who Mikey was trying to reassure. 

“Yeah…about that…I’m not sure I’m ready yet…” He could feel Mikey’s glare on him before he saw it. 

“ _You're_ not ready?” He asked incredulously, but not really expecting an answer. “ _Fucking asshole_.” He hissed, turning away on his heel, about to walk off, Frank stopping him by grabbing his arm, pulling him back.

“Wait, what?”

“Why are you making this about you? Gerard’s the one who’s had to go through all this shit, is _still_ going through all this shit; he’s the one that needs to be _ready_. I’m not putting his life on hold just so you can try and _get a fucking grip_.” Every word Mikey growled at him felt like a punch to the throat for Frank. He knew it was true, all of it, but at the same time…he just…couldn’t let something go. 

“I know, _I know_ that, but…I can’t give him what he wants.” 

“Have you even asked him what he wants?” Mikey angrily yanked his arm out of Frank’s grip, pushing his glasses back up his nose. “Jesus Christ, Frank.” And with that, Mikey stormed off down the hall towards his first class.

 _Asked him what he wants?_

He turned and kicked the locker beside him in frustration. _Asked him?_ How was he supposed to _ask him_ anything when he was so confused in everything: his emotions, wants, and his fears. What was he really scared of? Mikey was right: he was making it all about himself. He really _was_ an asshole.

*

Mikey sat with them all at the table during lunch, laughing with everyone, cracking jokes, acting normal. He didn’t look at Frank once, barely even acknowledged him, and he could tell Patrick noticed that something was wrong between the two of them, but he apparently decided to just keep out of it. Frank didn’t blame him. 

Mikey updated them on Gerard, spewing some lie about how he was recovering from mono or some other viral infection. He mentioned how Gerard should be in next week, causing Frank to tense up again, not even being able to touch the crappy canteen food today. He should have taken his Mom’s offer up on a making him a sandwich for dinner before he left. He tried his best to contribute to the conversation, to make it seem like everything was okay, but it was hard. He couldn’t the get the nightmare out of his head, and now he couldn’t get Mikey’s words out of his head.

_Have you even asked him what he wants?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know this chapter is v short but don't worry, the next one will make up for it I promise, as this is just a sort of filler chapter but it's needed so yeah, enjoy!


	19. Chapter Nineteen

The rest of the week followed the same pattern. Frank pretended to be okay while Mikey sent him glares every 3 seconds. Before he knew it, the day that Gerard was returning had arrived, and Frank didn’t know what to do. He still hadn’t figured everything out yet, and if he went into school now Mikey would make sure that he faced Gerard.

In the end he just decided to be a coward and not go into school. He wasn’t proud of it, but he didn’t have any other option; well, not any other option he wanted to try. He told his Mum he wasn’t feeling great, and then told her that he didn’t want to see any of his friends if they came to visit him, hoping that would be enough to buy him some time. 

He decided to occupy himself by putting on some music in the background while he caught up on the work he was going to miss in class. Usually he wasn’t bothered about his grades, but he felt bad lying to his Mom and thought this would be a way to make it up to her. Besides, it’s not like he had anything better to do. 

He was mid English work, having chosen the least interesting of his subjects to him, when his phone began buzzing on his bedside table. Without much thought, he picked up, assuming it was his Mom checking up on him. He realised his mistake when he unlocked his phone and realised the message was from Gerard.

_Hey I’m back in school but u aren’t here, are u sick? Can I come visit?_

Of course Gerard would message him, why didn’t he think of that? Gerard thought that everything had gone back to normal between the two of them, and so had Frank, until he’d discovered that he couldn’t do anything for Gerard. He typed back a reply hastily. If he didn’t say anything, then Gerard might just come over anyway.

_Best not, I’m pretty contagious_

His message was short and to the point: don’t come here. He felt bad, really bad. He wanted to see Gerard, he did. He wanted to laugh with Gerard, kiss him, hold him, and take away his pain. But he couldn’t do any of those things. He couldn’t make anything better for Gerard; so Gerard deserved someone who could, and for that to happen Frank had to get out of the way. His phone beeped again.

 _Okay, see you soon?_

Frank didn’t reply to that one. He tossed his phone to the end of his bed and tried to engross himself in his English work.

*  
The rest of the days followed the same suit; Frank did his schoolwork at home while ignoring Gerard’s messages of concern for him. It was Thursday, and Frank had managed to avoid a confrontation with Gerard for almost a week now. It hurt him, he was lonely, but he knew he was doing the right thing…or at least…he thought he was. 

When evening time came around and his Mom had finished work, she came up to Frank’s room, sitting on the edge of his bed with a troubled look on her face.

“Gerard’s visited twice now, Frank.” She began, her eyebrows furrowed in the way she did when she was about to stick something to Frank. Frank hated those eyebrows. “I know you're not sick. Seventeen years of living with me and you think I can’t tell?” Frank felt his cheeks burn up and looked down at his lap ashamed. 

“You’ve known all this time?” he mumbled guiltily.

“Call it a Mother’s intuition. And sick people don’t do school work. Especially not my son.” She pointed to the stack of schoolbooks at the side of his bed, an amused expression on her face, but that didn’t last long, and it was only a second before her concerned look returned. “Is someone giving you trouble at school?”

“What? No!” Frank exclaimed, almost offended that his own Mother thought he couldn’t handle himself against high school jerks. “No, that’s not it, and even if there was someone giving me a hard time, _which there isn’t_ , I wouldn’t hide in my room like a coward, I can stick up for myself." His Mom smiled softly at his stubbornness before leaning in closer to him.

“Then what are you hiding in your room like a coward from?” she whispered, raising a single brow. 

“I – I’m not…” he lied, and very badly too, he knew his Mom could tell.

“Frank. Cut the crap and just tell me what’s wrong. You're avoiding that boy, Gerard, aren’t you?” He kept silent, keeping his head low and letting his bangs hide his guilty eyes. “I thought you liked him?”

“I do!” Frank looked up at his Mom suddenly, wide eyes, pleading eyes, like the eyes Gerard in the dream had given him. “I do,” he repeated, quieter this time, “it’s just…”

“Look, you don’t have tell me exactly the problem, I can understand how talking to your Mom about boy problems isn’t the most appealing thing in the world,” she laughed lightly, reminding Frank why he loved his Mom so much. She knew him well. “You can’t keep yourself holed up in here, it isn’t healthy for you or for the people you’re affecting. Gerard’s really worried about you. He knows something’s up. I think he knows you're avoiding him.”

“Mom, I’m handling it, I promise.” His Mom returned his answer with a doubtful look, before sighing and standing up, heading towards his bedroom door. 

“Make sure you do.” Was all she said before she left the room, closing the door behind her. Frank was just making things harder for everyone, wasn’t he? 

*  
The next morning Frank’s alarm woke him up, which was strange because he was sure he hadn’t set it. Reaching over to his bedside table he groggily pressed the snooze button before turning over onto his side, slowly opening his eyes that were crusted with sleep. He didn’t think he was going to be able to get back to sleep straight away, so he lay there, blinking at the small rays of light creeping in through his curtains until his alarm went off again, and he sat up, turning it off completely. He groaned, stretching out his arms above his head before swinging his legs out over the bed and standing up. He’d spent almost the entire week just lying in bed, so he decided to at least get dressed today. He wobbled to the bathroom, the remnants of sleep pulling at him, and splashed some water on his face before giving his teeth a quick brush and returning to his room to throw on a pair of jeans and an old t-shirt. 

He made his way downstairs with the intention of getting himself some breakfast. His Mom had already left for work seeing as she didn’t have to drop Frank at school for now, so he was confused when he heard a bump in the living room, followed by a curse. Frank froze, listening for the scuffle of feet that followed the swearing. He reached into one of the kitchen cupboards as silently as possible, pulling out a frying pan, thinking it would be easier to beat the assailant to death rather than stabbing them. He tiptoed to the lounge door, counting to five in his head, taking a deep breath, before kicking open the door and storming in, frying pans blazing.

What he saw wasn’t an assailant trying to steal their TV, or a murderer that had captured his Mother, but instead Gerard, who was trying his best to pick up the magazines and books he’d knocked off the coffee table. Gerard squealed when Frank entered, seeming just as shocked as Frank was to find an intruder in his house. 

“What the fuck are you doing in here?!” Frank shouted, waving the frying pan around frantically, as if that would help make sense of the situation. 

“Your Mom let me in…” Gerard replied feebly, pointing to the mess on the floor. Frank should’ve have known. His Mom liked to meddle. “Sorry, I banged into the table, I was trying to clean it up and…why do you have a frying pan?”

“Because I thought there was a fucking intruder in my house!” 

“Oh. Sorry.” Gerard looked around the room awkwardly, shifting from his left foot to his right foot over and over again.

“What the hell are you doing here? I’m sick.” Frank sighed, placing the frying pan down on the armchair next to him now knowing he was in no immediate danger. Gerard’s face darkened, and he crossed his arms along his chest.

“No you're not.” He spoke angrily, sadness in his eyes. “You’re avoiding me. And I want to know why.” 

“I’m not avoiding you, I’m sick.” Frank persisted, even though even he knew there was no point. His lie had been found. His Mom had probably confirmed it to Gerard that he wasn’t really ill.

“Bullshit!” Gerard yelled, and Frank hadn’t heard him sound this angry before, this emotional. “Are you…are you still afraid of me? Is that it?”

“No, it’s not that –“

“Because I thought, that when you came to visit, we were better, that you knew I was okay…”

“I said it’s not that!” A heavy silence fell over the room, almost suffocating, and Frank fell back against the wall, needing something for support right now. 

“Then what is it? You can’t just ignore it and think everything will work out for you, because, because…” he trailed off, not wanting to say what he thought. 

“I can’t be with you, Gerard.” He whispered, finally, _finally_ , telling someone the truth: the one he needed to. Gerard’s face crumpled, his hands balling into fists at his sides, and he turned his head, fire red hair hiding his face. 

“Why – what – I don’t understand…I thought you liked me?” Frank could hear his voice catching in his throat, hating that he was hurting him, but at the same time it needed to be said. “Is it because…I’m like this? You think I’m a monster, don’t you? Like the rest of them?” Frank shook his head violently, running both of his hands through his bed hair.

“No! No, I don’t think you’re a – a _monster_ , I know you're not –“

“Then why?!” Gerard burst out; his head snapping up to look at Frank again, a tear running down his cheek, his eyes full of desperation, his body shaking with anger. “What is it then? Tell me!”

“Because I can’t help you!” Frank screwed up his eyes, his hands still in his hair, scrunched up, not even realising he’d said it. It was out there, the truth was out there, and it was more painful now he’d vocalised it. His chest felt tight, his eyes stung, and his throat felt like it had closed up. He couldn’t breathe properly. He dropped to his knees, clinging to his shirt at the collar as if that was thing constricting him. 

“What…I…I don’t understand…you can’t…help me?” Frank forced his head up, looking at Gerard who had a confused look on his face, his arms now hanging limply by his sides. Frank tugged at his shirt again, wanting to get these words out, needing to. 

“I…I can’t take away your pain…I can’t make things better.” He coughed, closing his eyes again to make it much easier for him to tell Gerard the truth about everything. “What you’ve been through…is so fucking much…Mikey told me what happened with your Mom…carrying around that pain every day must be… _exhausting_ …and you deserve to be happy, you deserve someone who can take that pain, all that suffering you're carrying, and make it disappear…and I… _I can’t do that_.” His voice cracked slightly at the end, and he forced himself to open his eyes, staring up at Gerard through the tears that were threatening to escape. “ _I can’t be the one to do that because I don’t know how_.” He let go of his shirt, placing both hands on the floor, feeling like his lungs were going to collapse, that his throat was going to completely seize up.

“You can’t…take away my pain.” Gerard whispered, his head bent so that his hair was hiding his eyes. “My pain.” Frank tried to concentrate on taking regular deep breaths, trying so desperately to calm himself down. “My pain.” Gerard repeated, before laughing lightly, a whispering laugh, a dangerous laugh. “ _What the hell do you know about my pain?!_ ” Gerard suddenly exploded, shaking his head, removing his hair from his face, and revealing the tears streaming down it. “You’ve heard it from other people, their views, their thoughts, your own opinions. My pain is my own! It’s not yours, it’s not anyone else’s, _it’s mine! So how could you possibly know my pain?_ You never even asked me!”

_Have you even asked him what he wants?_

Mikey’s words rang through his head, and now he finally knew what they meant. Gerard stepped closer to Frank, the tears dropping to the floor, creating dark spots on the carpet.

“I’ll tell you what my pain is!” he was continuously stepping closer, his voice getting louder. “My pain is this eternal hunger I have to deal with everything single day! Having to fight the urge to do…to do… _that_ , having to deal with hurting everybody when I do! My pain is my past, what I did to my Mother, my Father, how I made Mikey feel, how I made _my own brother scared of me!_ My pain is people thinking they know my pain when they know shit! My pain is not being able to be normal! To live normal! To be seen as normal! That’s what my pain is!” By now Gerard was on the floor too, kneeling in front of Frank, hands gripping his knees. “But, I’ll tell you what my pain isn’t. My pain isn’t having met you, that small grouchy kid sat on the bench. My pain isn’t when you gave me a chance, got to know me, talked to me like a normal guy. My pain isn’t when you found out what I was, when you were scared at first but then became the most excited person I’d ever seen. My pain isn’t all those days we spent together, watching movies, taking photos, fooling around. My pain isn’t when you kissed me, touched me, made me feel loved, made me happy. _My pain isn’t being with you!_ ” Gerard suddenly grabbed Frank’s shoulders, pushing him up so they were looking at each other.

Both of them were crying, eyes red raw and cheeks stained, and neither of them seemed to be stopping any time soon. Maybe that was a good thing.

“Not being with you would just leave me with what my pain is.” Gerard whispered, pulling Frank into a hug, wrapping his arms tightly around his neck. “ _I love you, Frankie._ ” Frank broke down then, clutching Gerard tightly, his chest hiccupping with each breath. He’d been so stupid, so, so stupid. All this time he’d wasted, wasted it thinking he couldn’t be there for Gerard, not realising that he already was, not realising that he didn’t have to take on Gerard’s pain, he didn’t have to make it disappear, because nobody could do that. Like Gerard said, his pain was his own. But Frank could give Gerard things that weren’t pain.

“I love you. I do, I love you.” He whispered back into Gerard’s ear, still fierce in embrace, not ready to let go yet, not ready to let go ever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so next chapter will be the last one, there might be a slight delay, but hopefully not. Anyway, I hope you enjoy!


	20. Chapter Twenty

“Looking good, Frank.” Mikey raised an eyebrow in appreciation at Frank’s appearance as he stepped to the side to let him into the Way house. 

“Really?” Frank asked a little unsure, pulling at the black tie around the collar of his shirt, certain his Mom had done it too tight. He’d refused to wear the suit jacket; he didn’t care if it was part of a set, the trousers and shirt and tie were enough. 

“What’s this, are you actually nervous?” Mikey all but laughed, smirking as he shut the door behind Frank.

“Shut up.” Frank punched Mikey in the arm before shoving his hands into the pockets of his suit trousers, ducking his head low. “I haven’t been to anything like this before. It’s weird.” He shrugged, toeing the floor with his boot. “Isn’t Gerard nervous or anything?”

“Are you kidding me? He’s so fucking excited it’s actually annoying. He hasn’t shut up about it, which is bad enough when you know how much he talks anyway.” Mikey rolled his eyes and Frank smiled at the thought. “You're gonna be late if he doesn’t hurry up soon.” 

“Gerard! Hurry up! We gotta go!” Frank yelled up towards the stairs, running a hand through his bangs, wondering if he should’ve gelled his hair back or something fancy like that. 

“Is he still not ready?” Gerard and Mikey’s Dad limped in, looking up towards the stairs, and Frank shook his head, causing Mr. Way to do the same. “That boy I swear to God…you’re looking very smart, Frank.” 

“Thanks.” Frank laughed nervously, “I tried my best.” He shrugged, Mr. Way nodding in approval. 

Mikey and Gerard’s Dad had returned home a couple days before Gerard had, and things had got much better between them all. Mikey and Gerard had a much closer relationship with their Dad now; Frank assumed they’d talked stuff out like they should’ve done years ago. Mr. Way was much less intimidating now, much less, well, scary. Frank even looked forward to seeing Mr. Way whenever he went home with Gerard, realising he was actually a really funny guy. The first time Frank had come to their house after Gerard’s return, Mr. Way had pulled Frank to the side and thanked him deeply for everything he’d done for Gerard, though Frank argued that he hadn’t really done anything. He’d realised that Mr. Way had probably just been scared, just like Mikey had been, and just like Gerard had been, and, like the brothers, he’d just learnt to stop. 

The relationship between the Ways wasn’t the only thing different now; Mr. Way also walked with a limp, using a cane to support him after Gerard’s attack. Gerard felt guilty every time he saw his Dad, a sadness filling his eyes, but his Dad always said he was fine, and that he even liked it better this way, and that Gerard had nothing to feel sorry about. 

“Gerard!” Mikey walked to the bottom of the stairs, an exasperated look on his face. “I swear to –“

“ _I’m coming!_ ” Gerard screeched back down, Frank hearing a door open and bang shut, followed by feet quickly running down the stairs. Everyone stood in silence as they saw Gerard, all of them too shocked to say anything, to even breathe. It was like time had frozen, stopped still completely, the only thing that could move it again being Gerard himself. Frank was the first to break the silence, bursting out into a fit of laughter while Mikey and Mr. Way just stood there, in only what Frank could assume was shock.

“What on earth are you wearing?” Frank managed to ask between his fits of laughter, reaching out to hold onto the staircase banister for support. Gerard was dressed in a shirt and suit trousers, his trousers tucked into his calf-high boots he’d decided to wear, the excess fabric spilling out over the laces. Instead of a suit jacket Gerard had picked out a leather jacket that was far too small for him, the seams at the shoulders threatening to split, the sleeves half way up his arms. To top it all off, Gerard had chosen, what Frank could only describe as, a tie that could not be looked at directly for fear of a seizure. 

“What?” Gerard asked, confused, looking down at himself, “What’s wrong with it?”

“You can’t go out like that, Gee.” Mikey was trying hard to suppress his own laughter, hiding his mouth behind his fist. 

“You still have that jacket?” Mr. Way shook his head, “I thought we gave that away years ago!”

“It’s my favourite!” Gerard argued back, gripping the lapels of the jacket tightly as if one of them were going to tear it off him. 

“It doesn’t even fit you anymore!” Mr. Way retaliated, crossing his arms over his chest. Gerard frowned, attempting to move his shoulders back and forth to test the size. 

“It’s not…so bad…” 

“You can’t wear those shoes.” Frank laughed, nodding towards Gerard’s feet. “Those type of boots you can’t tuck trousers into unless they're skinny jeans. You look like one of those people who wade through deep water with the knee-high wellies.” 

“And don’t even get me started on that tie.” Mikey was grinning now while Gerard was looking increasingly irked by the negative appraisal his choice of outfit was receiving. 

“What’s wrong with the tie?!” 

“Okay,” Mr. Way began, making his way a little closer towards the stairs. “How about this? You lose the jacket, change into those nice dress shoes I got you, and you can keep the tie.” Gerard frowned, about to argue back with something else but his Dad got there first. “Actually it’s no longer up for discussion.” 

*  
It took about another ten minutes to get Gerard presentable before him and Frank left, Frank’s Mom letting him borrow her car to drive them to the destination. He found the place pretty easily, it being held in the only big art gallery nearby, about 20 minutes away in the car. Gerard hadn’t been able to sit still the entire journey there, his knees jigging up and down, his fingers tapping loudly on the dashboard, his feet kicking at the floor, until it reached a point where Frank had to tell Gerard to quit it before he crashed the car. 

The art gallery was plain, simple, but rather large. Frank already felt lost the moment he stepped inside, thankful for Gerard’s hand tugging him through the maze of paintings and sculptures. Gerard ignored all the other entries, pulling Frank along to his own painting towards the back of the room, it having an entire wall to itself. 

“What do you think?” Gerard inquired excitedly, clinging onto Frank’s forearm. The painting hadn’t been anything like Frank had expected, then again, Frank hadn’t really been sure what to expect. The painting was mainly black, pretty much all black, with slight tones of grey here and there, a small figure completely in red in the centre, the figure curled up in a ball, several red threads protruding from him and spreading out to the edge of the painting. Frank knew what it represented, he knew enough that he didn’t have to ask, and he thought Gerard was glad that he didn’t have to ask its meaning. The painting had been carefully placed in a bronze coloured frame engraved with vines and extravagant flowers, a little bronze placard underneath with ‘Third Place’ written in fancy swirls. 

Gerard had apparently started the piece shortly after he’d met Frank for the third time in the school, finishing it just before the situation with his Dad happened, handing it over to his art teacher who thought it was so good that they put it forward to the annual art competition, Gerard receiving third place, meaning he’d receive some sort of award at the ceremony later this evening. Frank had been just as surprised as Gerard when he’d found out. Not because he didn’t think Gerard’s art was good: it was brilliant, but because this exhibition was usually for the big leagues, for people who’d paid thousands to attend pretentious art schools. And Gerard had managed to get third place. It was amazing. And out of all the people he could have chosen to attend the ceremony with him, he’d chosen Frank.

Gerard dragged Frank through the rest of the exhibition, marveling at the other entries, taking notes of the second and first place entries, trying to use them to improve his own works in the future. Frank couldn’t really pay attention though; he was too focused on Gerard, on his bright smile flashing his tiny teeth, on his eyes wide and entranced by the different drawings on the walls. Without thinking, he grabbed Gerard by the hand, pulling him towards him, placing a gentle hand around the back of his neck, guiding their mouths together. It was a passionate kiss, Frank deepening it as soon as he felt Gerard’s lips begin to move against his, entwining their tongues together, softly, carefully, as if anything too fast, too chaotic, would shatter the moment completely.

When he finally broke the kiss, he rested his forehead against Gerard’s, their mouths still close enough that they were inhaling each other’s breath. 

“God, that tie is fucking awful.” Frank laughed gently, catching sight of the frenzied colours as he looked down, interlacing his fingers in the hair at the base of Gerard’s neck, holding him there, as if he would disappear any second. But he knew that was wrong, that he didn’t have to be afraid anymore, that Gerard wouldn’t leave. As long as Frank wanted him, needed him, Gerard would be there. And Frank would do the same for Gerard, could do the same. He didn't need to be afraid anymore.

“You can take it off later.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So it's finally finished! Thank you guys so much for all your kind comments, they really made me smile, and I'm really glad you enjoyed it! ^_^

**Author's Note:**

> Alright so first chapter is up, keeping in mind I wrote this part a yer or so ago so ahh, let's see how it goes


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